Oxitec’s Collaboration in the Florida Keys
Oxitec has a long-standing partnership with the Florida Keys Mosquito Control District (FKMCD) and in 2021 began to evaluate the effectiveness of Oxitec mosquitoes to control the invasive, disease-spreading Aedes aegypti mosquito in the Florida Keys.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) gave its approval in May 2020 for Oxitec to carry out pilot projects in Florida through spring 2022 to showcase this safe, environmentally sustainable technology. The EPA Federal Register Notice is available here. Documents issued by the EPA include:
Response to Comments: (Explanatory Memorandum) and (Response to Comments)
Reviews of Section G Field Protocol (26 March 2020) and (Addendum 30 April 2020)
In June of 2020 the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services (FDACS) authorized Oxitec’s project, and in May 2022 authorized the project’s continuation, including reviews from:
Florida Department of Environmental Protection (FDEP)
Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC)
Bureau of Inspection and Incident Response (BIIR)
Florida Department of Health (DOH)
Bureau of Agricultural Environmental Laboratories (BAEL)
Bureau of Chemical Residue Laboratories (BCRL)
Bureau of Scientific Evaluation and Technical Assistance, Scientific Evaluation Section (SES)
The FKMCD held a virtual Oxitec Workshop for their Board Tuesday, 23 June. All provided materials are available through this link.
In an FKMCD Board meeting on in July 2020, each of the five Commissioners expressed support for Oxitec’s technology and this project, and determined that the final vote to approve the project would be postponed to August 2020, to give FKMCD and Oxitec time to consider how best to manage the pilot project in the context of the worsening COVID crisis. Given the impact of the pandemic on Florida Keys residents, Oxitec’s team supported the FKMCD Board of Commissioners’ decision to postpone the vote. We worked with FKMCD to ensure our 2021-2022 project plan takes COVID into consideration. With growing locally transmitted dengue outbreaks in the Keys, our FKMCD-Oxitec collaboration remains an important priority and we used the time leading up to August 2020 to continue our engagement efforts with the Florida Keys public and other stakeholders.
On Tuesday, 18 August 2020 the FKMCD Board approved the FKMCD-Oxitec Investigational Agreement. FKMCD and Oxitec began final planning for the project, which included decisions on timing and locations. Building on ten years of extensive public engagement and education, FKMCD and Oxitec launched additional efforts with the local community and other interested parties as the project progressed. On March 7, 2022 the EPA approved an extension of the project. State-level approval was granted from FDACS May 4, 2022. The 2022 project launched the week of May 9th.
A non-binding referendum in 2016 showed that Monroe County residents are overwhelmingly supportive of Oxitec’s technology, with 31 of 33 precincts voting in favor of the Oxitec mosquito project.
Before any project, we engage local communities and provide answers to any questions residents may have.
We will continue to keep local communities fully informed, and also encourage residents wanting to learn more about the project to contact us at florida@oxitec.com or call us on +1 888 308 1859.
For media inquiries, call us on +1 202 792 3080 or email press@oxitec.com
FKMCD is also available to answer questions about this project.
Aedes aegypti in Florida
Aedes aegypti are invasive mosquitoes, not native to the United States, which carry and spread harmful diseases such as dengue, Zika, yellow fever and chikungunya. In recent years the Florida Keys have seen locally transmitted cases of dengue and travel-related cases of Zika. The local invasive Aedes aegypti makes up approximately 4% of the mosquito population in the Keys, but is responsible for virtually all the mosquito-borne disease transmission.
The Aedes aegypti mosquito is an increasingly global threat, now living alongside half of the world’s population. After decades of effort, there is still no cure or specific treatment for many diseases transmitted by the Aedes aegypti, and public health agencies are trying to stop these devastating diseases at their common source: by controlling the Aedes aegypti mosquito itself.
Unfortunately, existing methods of controlling Aedes aegypti, such as spraying or fogging using chemical insecticides, have failed to prevent the spread of disease. This is partly because Aedes aegypti has developed resistance to insecticides, rendering many common chemicals less effective controlling the mosquito, it is also an aggressive day-biter and thrives in urban environments.
For more information about the Aedes aegypti mosquito, click here; and for a recently published study on the growing threat that Aedes aegypti is posing to a number of US communities, please click here. For more information on dengue in the US, click here.
Key Facts:
Oxitec mosquitoes do not bite;
Oxitec mosquitoes are safe, non-toxic and self-limiting;
Oxitec’s mosquitoes do not pose a threat to humans or the environment, as confirmed by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in 2016 and by the EPA in 2020 and 2022;
More than one billion Oxitec mosquitoes have been released worldwide, with no negative impacts;
More than 100 scientific studies and peer-reviewed papers have been published about Oxitec’s technology, a diverse cross-section of which can be found on Oxitec’s website;
Oxitec’s field pilot projects are small, designed to demonstrate their ability to combat invasive pest female (biting) Aedes aegypti relative to untreated control areas, as well as other operational and performance-related features;
No tetracycline will have been used with Oxitec’s mosquitoes deployed in Florida.