Ecobreves – BRAZIL: Larvicide to Fight Dengue Mosquitoes

By IPS Correspondents and - - Reprint | | Print |

RIO DE JANEIRO, Apr 7 2008 (IPS) - A natural pesticide that eliminates mosquito larva may help control the dengue epidemic in Brazil. The disease has killed at least 44 people in Rio de Janeiro. Applied since late 2006 against mosquito larvae that transmit dengue, and produced from a common bacteria by the government's agricultural research agency, Embrapa, and the Sao Paulo-based private firm Bthek, the Bt-horus can be used freely because it does not harm the environment or human health.

The company has the capacity to meet the demand for a metropolis like Rio de Janeiro, with a population of six million, in four or five months, Bthek's commercial director Mateus Tozatti told Tierramérica.

The minimum cost for treating one patient with dengue would be enough to keep as many as 200 homes free of larvae, he said.