In a groundbreaking effort to curb the spread of Dengue fever, Brazil has opened the world’s largest mosquito factory, a facility capable of producing up to 190 million mosquitoes every week. Located in Campinas, in São Paulo state, this 1,300-square-meter plant may sound like something out of a horror story, but it is, in fact, a cornerstone of an innovative strategy to control one of the country’s most persistent public health threats.
Inside the facility, technicians work around the clock to breed Aedes aegypti mosquitoes, the same species responsible for spreading Dengue, Zika, and Chikungunya. However, these insects are not typical disease carriers. They are deliberately infected with a naturally occurring bacterium called Wolbachia, which prevents the Dengue virus from developing inside their bodies. When these specially bred mosquitoes are released and reproduce with wild populations, the Wolbachia bacteria are passed on to their offspring, gradually reducing the ability of mosquitoes in the wild to transmit Dengue to humans.
The production process begins with thousands of water-filled trays kept at a carefully controlled temperature, where larvae are nurtured until they mature. Once they become adult mosquitoes, they are transferred to cages and fed. Male mosquitoes are given a sugary solution soaked into cotton balls, while females are fed animal blood stored in bags designed to mimic human skin. The mosquitoes spend about four weeks in these enclosures, during which time they mate and lay eggs, ensuring a continuous and sustainable production cycle.
While the Wolbachia method has been tested successfully in other parts of the world, Brazil’s initiative is unprecedented in scale. The Campinas factory can produce enough mosquitoes to serve a population of up to 100 million people annually. This large-scale effort comes at a crucial time: in 2024, Brazil faced its worst Dengue outbreak in history, accounting for more than 80% of all reported cases worldwide. The factory’s opening signals a decisive step toward reversing that trend through science and biotechnology.
Brazilian health authorities believe that the release of Wolbachia-infected mosquitoes could dramatically reduce Dengue transmission rates and potentially provide protection against other mosquito-borne illnesses as well. The program demonstrates how turning nature’s most notorious pest into an agent of prevention could redefine disease control.
