British mosquitoes could wipe out malaria, according to Bill Gates.
The billionaire philanthropist said UK biotech giant Oxitech has created a super mozzie capable of bumping off disease-riddled rivals that spread the illness which kills 600,000 people-a-year.
Homeowners can buy kits to raise the malaria-busters in their own backyards.
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The Brit-made mosquitoes are all male and carry a special gene to prevent female offspring from surviving into adulthood.
Only females bite and spread malaria. Released into the wild Oxitec’s genetically-modified males mate with wild females. All the female offspring then die.
Males - which do not bite or spread the disease - survive and go on to mate with other wild females `dramatically’ reducing the world’s mosquito population and the "spread of malaria". according to Gates.
Tests have shown the super mozzies pose no risk to the environment or humans.
More than one billion have so far been released worldwide with "no negative impacts", Bill wrote in an online blog.
In Brazil the Brit buzzers are helping eliminate dengue fever - another mosquito-transmitted disease which kills up to 40,000-a-year.
They will be introduced to Djibouti in east Africa next year to stop a rise in the number of malaria cases from 27 in 2012 to 73,000 in 2020.
Now more than 7% of the population is infected.
Other malaria-spreading mozzies are ravaging Ethiopia, Sudan, Somalia, Kenya, Nigeria and Ghana putting 126 million people at risk.
The breed - called An.stephensi - lives in cities, has grown resistant to anti-bug sprays and attacks in the evening rather than overnight reducing the impact of protective bed nets.
Gates, 67, who co-founded software giant Microsoft, said Oxitec, based in Abingdon, near Oxford, has produced a potentially "game-changing solution to mosquito control".
"The fight against mosquitoes and the diseases they carry has always been a game of cat and mouse,’’ he said.
"Humans develop new interventions—like bed nets, insecticides, and treatments—to protect themselves from mosquitoes.
"Mosquitoes, meanwhile, have an incredible capacity to adapt, allowing them to eventually dodge or develop resistance to the latest control methods.
"Oxitec, however, aims to change this game from cat versus mouse to mouse versus mouse. Or in this case mosquito versus mosquito.’’
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He said the company uses "mosquitoes to fight other mosquitoes".
"To end malaria we need many new tools and innovations to reduce the burden of this disease and move the world closer to eradication,’’ Bill said.
"I’m excited about the potential of Oxitec’s technology to help Djibouti and the rest of Africa achieve this goal.’’
