Hicran
August 21, 2014

Argentinian researchers developed a biological insecticide from an aquatic fungus to eliminate the mosquito that transmits dengue and chikungunya viruses, local media spread here today.

The research was conducted by specialists at the National University of La Plata (UNLP) and the National Council for Scientific and Technical Research (CONICET), an entity of the Argentinian State, sources report.

Its use would avoid polluting chemical fumigations. Experts are currently studying the final formulation so that the new product can be marketed, reports the news agency Telam.

CONICET website affirms that the biological insecticide was used in several field tests with promising results.

This discovery will become a preventive resourse pending antiviral drugs to treat these diseases effectively.

This innovative breakthrough belongs to researchers at the Center for Parasitological Studies and Vectors, a dependent institute of the Faculty of Natural Sciences and Museum of the UNLP and CONICET.

Scientists created this palliative from a finding and the collection of the aquatic fungus Leptolegnia chapmanii in pools of water in the town of Melchor Romero, in La Plata. (Prensa Latina)