Just Add Water: Oxitec Announces Scale-Up of Friendly™ Aedes Technology in Brazil
Oxitec’s Friendly™ Aedes aegypti just-add-water technology will be deployed across the City of Indaiatuba, State of São Paulo, Brazil for the 2020 – 2021 mosquito season in collaboration with its dengue control program
Project follows ground-breaking pilot and will further demonstrate the technology’s effectiveness at scale in city’s dengue-threatened communities
94% of surveyed residents supported expanded deployments after last year’s pilot program
The environmentally friendly technology is designed to equip governments and communities of all sizes with a simple, affordable, and sustainable Aedes aegypti solution
Washington, D.C. – Today Oxitec announced the launch of a new scale-up deployment of Friendly™ Aedes aegypti just-add-water devices for the 2020 - 2021 mosquito season. The expanded collaboration with the City of Indaiatuba will scale the deployment of Oxitec’s technology in collaboration with the city’s dengue control program. This builds on the successful pilot program last year when, following just 13 weeks of treatment, the technology suppressed up to 95%1 of disease carrying Aedes aegypti in centralized Indaiatuba neighborhoods.
The devices in this scale-up use Oxitec’s proprietary system for deploying safe, non-toxic, non-biting male Aedes aegypti technology via egg packets in small recyclable box-like devices. Once filled with a small quantity of water, Oxitec’s male mosquitoes soon emerge and disperse to mate with wild-type female Aedes aegypti. It is the first insect based Aedes aegypti control technology that can be manufactured in centralized facilities and then shipped, stored, and deployed on demand without expert staff or special equipment.
Independent research found community support for the project was overwhelmingly high, with 94% of 1,200 residents surveyed in favor of Friendly™ mosquito technology and its use in their neighborhoods.
Grey Frandsen, CEO of Oxitec said, “We are thrilled to be asked by the City to scale up the use of our Friendly™ Aedes technology in collaboration with their dengue control program this year. We have developed an excellent partnership and demonstrated together last year that this sustainable technology can be easily deployed and generate significant results quickly. We’ll do it again this year, this time at a larger scale that will demonstrate the value our technology can deliver when deployed across the City.”
Natalia Ferreira, General Director of Oxitec Brasil, said: “To combat a growing threat of dengue in our country, effective, proven and environmentally sustainable control tools are needed. Our results so far have been excellent, and we have had a high level of community support. The implementation of our Friendly™ Aedes technology in Indaiatuba proved to be effective to control Aedes aegypti in urban environments, and we are looking forward to continue helping the communities to keep this problem under control. "
Oxitec’s just-add-water technology represents a major advancement in safe, targeted vector control. While insect-based technologies have demonstrated promising suppression effects over the last few decades, this is the first solution built specifically to provide targeted suppression with simplicity, scalability, and economic sustainability, further unlocking the benefits of this public health solution for governments, communities and other end-users of all types and income levels.
In May 2020, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) granted Oxitec an Experimental Use Permit (EUP) for piloting this same technology in the United States. Oxitec received full biosafety approval for this technology from Brazil’s biosafety regulatory authority CTNBio after demonstrating the technology’s safety to human health, animals, and the environment.
The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates there are 390 million dengue infections per year, with approximately half of the world’s population at risk. The number of dengue cases reported to the WHO has increased more than 15-fold during the past two decades. Brazil’s dengue cases increased almost 600% from 2018 to 2019. Aedes aegypti is an invasive mosquito found throughout the world and also transmits Zika, chikungunya and yellow fever.
1 95% was the highest 2-week rolling average, the individual weekly high was 98%; the highest 4-week rolling average was 92%.
About Oxitec
Oxitec is a pioneer in biological solutions to safely and sustainably control insect pests that spread disease and damage crops. Oxitec was founded in 2002 as a spinout from the University of Oxford (UK) and is made up of a passionate and diverse team comprised of 15 nationalities.
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