This unusual cure for mosquito bites will totally throw you off balance
– Scientists from Ethiopia and Sweden have propounded a major solution to mosquito bites that kill thousands of human beings yearly
– United Nation reports that nearly 400,000 people in Africa were killed last year by mosquitoes which are responsible for various diseases
Ethiopian scientists have discovered that smell from a live chicken could help to protect against malaria which kills thousands of people every year as mosquitoes develop resistance to insecticides.
The scientists in an experiment conducted in western Ethiopia revealed that the smell from a live chicken could help protect against malaria.
Woman rearing live chicken
The research which was published in the ‘Malaria Journal’ concluded that as mosquitoes use their sense of smell to locate an animal they can bite, there must be something in a chicken’s odour that puts the insects off.
These researchers, according to Daily Nation, found that chickens have a volatile chemical component that repels mosquitoes.
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Despite the fact that infection and death rates are declining, health officials are continuing to look for new ways to prevent the spread of the disease.
The UN reports that nearly 400,000 people in Africa were killed last year by the malaria parasite, which initially hides in the liver before going into the bloodstream. It is also carried from person to person by mosquitoes.
Habte Tekie, who worked on the research in Addis Ababa university, confirmed that the compounds from the smell of the chicken can be extracted and could work as a repellent.
He said: “Field trials for this stage of the research are now in the pipeline.”
Researchers from the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences involved in the project extracted compounds from chicken feathers used in the experiments, as well as live chickens.
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They discovered that the use of the chicken and the compounds ‘significantly reduced’ the number of mosquitoes that were found in the trap nearby.
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