Mosquito-eating fish fight Zika virus in Mexico.

Maybe you’ve heard about. I haven’t. I came across this story online and found it so interesting that I had to share it for you as well.

The western mosquitofish (Gambusia affinis) is a species of freshwater fish, also known commonly, if ambiguously, as simply mosquitofish or by its generic name, Gambusia, or its common name, gambezi.

In 2016 an initiative called “Operation Blessing International” was helping fight the Zika virus in Mexico with mosquito-eating fish.

The humanitarian group was breeding Gambusia in a pond in a fish-breeding area near Acapulco, Guerrero, in the Mexican pacific coast, and already was giving fish away to families to use in their rain water collection barrels, an Operation Blessing news release said. Already before, the fish had been busy eating mosquito larvae.

More than 60 local community health workers received the fish and was trained. The workers was then distributing the fish to families to be used in buckets, barrels, tubs and other containers where water was stored around their homes, the release said.

When its operation was up to full capacity, the organization expected to produce thousands of fish each week to be used to battle mosquitoes that transmit the virus.

Another mosquito-eating fish is Gambusia yucatana.

The group said Mexican officials have also asked for the program to launch in the Yucatan Peninsula.

The group has had success with mosquito-eating fish in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina and in El Salvador. It also plans programs in Guatemala, Honduras and possibly Peru.

Source: The Virginia Pilot, in March 2016.

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