Dr. Westly Rosario, chief of the Fisheries expert at the National Integrated Fisheries Technology and Development Center of the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR-NIFTDC), advocates for this “biological” approach in winning the battle against dengue partly because it is also cheaper. Rosario calls it the “mosquito fish” because it is a natural predator of mosquito larvae and as such lives in their breeding grounds. But this fish species is known in Pangasinan as “Itar” or “Tuyong” in Ilocano and “Katapa” in Tagalog.

Riñoza, J. (2018, February 7). Fish species can fight dengue mosquitoes – expert. Manila Bulletin, p. 7.