BuzzWords!
Volume 12. No.2. Mar/Apr 2012
Upcoming Events
____________________________________________
www.floridamosquito.org
President
President Elect
Vice-President
Past President
Executive Director
Web Master
______________
Larry Hribar
Bob Betts
Neil Wilkinson
Roxanne Connelly
Shelly Redovan
Gregg Ross
Change of address: buzzwords@ifas.ufl.edu
or
Roxanne Connelly, Editor
UF/IFAS/FMEL
200 9th Street SE
Vero Beach, FL 32962
Society for Vector Ecology
44th Annual Conference
September 23 – 27, 2012
Renaissance World Golf Village Resort and
Convention Center
St. Augustine, FL
Room Rates $97; Registration $310
FMCA address:
Florida Mosquito Control Association
FMCA
P O Box 61598
Ft. Myers, FL 33906
__________
Deadlines for submissions to be included in the newsletter:
84th Fall Annual Meeting
November 11 – 14, 2012
Sandestin Hilton
Sandestin, FL
Jan/Feb Feb 1
Mar/Apr Apr 1
May/Jun Jun 1
Jul/Aug Aug 1
Sep/Oct Oct 1
Nov/Dec Dec 1
_______________
Florida Mosquito Control Association
Send newsletter submissions to:
Nathan Burkett-Cadena, Managing editor
nburkett@health.usf.edu
2013 Dodd Short Courses
January 27 – February 1, 2013
Ocala Hilton
The mission of the FMCA is to promote effective and
environmentally sound control of disease-transmitting and
pestiferous mosquitoes and other arthropods of public health
importance, develop and enhance public interest, awareness, and
support for the control of mosquitoes, and provide for the
scientific advancement of members through our meetings,
training and education.
By the time this reaches you, spring will have sprung, and many of you will have
already sprung into action. Others are waiting only for the temperature to rise a
little, or for that first good rainfall or high tide. Unfortunately for us, the
mosquitoes are waiting too. And with mosquitoes comes the threat of mosquitoborne disease. At this writing (March 20) there has been very little arboviral
activity in Florida. Very little does not mean none, however. Eastern Equine
Encephalitis Virus, West Nile Virus, St. Louis Encephalitis Virus, and Highlands J
Virus all have been detected in sentinel chickens this year. There have already
been three confirmed equine cases of EEE, and several cases each of imported
dengue and imported malaria have been reported. Schmallenberg Virus has now
been detected in livestock in Italy, Luxembourg, and Spain, and in biting midges in
Denmark. Russia, Ukraine, Egypt, and Mexico have responded by banning the
import of live animals, embryos, and semen from the European Union, and there
are calls for a ban on transportation of animals into and out of the UK. There
certainly will be economic repercussions felt by many in a time that can ill afford
further disruption of the economy. We do well to keep in mind the motto of the US
Air Force Auxiliary Civil Air Patrol: Semper Vigilans!!
The FMCA Board of Directors met in Tampa during the second week of March.
Items on the agenda included NPDES, Emeritus and Honorary Membership in
FMCA, and progress on the Policy & Procedure Manual and position description
for the Executive Director. Things are coming along; perhaps they appear to be
happening at a snail’s pace, but progress is being made. The Pesticide Application
Committee drafted a document detailing Best Practices for Integrated Mosquito
Management. Thank you each and every committee member for your hard work
on this project that came up suddenly: Jonathan Hornby, Jim McNelly, Jane Bonds,
Joe Marhefka. Also on board were Peter Jiang and Steve Harrison from DOACS.
Thank you one and all.!
You may have heard that Gov. Scott has ordered a review of all 1,636 special
districts in Florida. This review will cover not only mosquito control districts but
all special districts, up to and including Reedy Creek Improvement District (the
Disney properties) and The Villages, a large retirement community in central
Florida that was built as a Community Development District. The review process
apparently will examine collection and expenditure of tax revenue and employee
salaries, among other things.!
Larry Hribar!
FMCA President
| BuzzWords Volume 12. No.2. Mar/Apr 2012
From Your FMCA President
2!
Moving forward in the battle against Aedes aegypti and dengue in
Key West, Florida Reducing Ae. aegypti populations with a method that promises to only
directly affect Ae. aegypti and might also reduce dengue transmission is
certainly laudable. This novel method holds great promise. However there
are still many unanswered questions about the technology and as yet there is
no precedent on whether the strategy will successfully reduce Ae. aegypti in
Key West or reduce the risk for dengue transmission. !
The decision to move forward with this new technology in a proposed test of
the method in Key West has received a large amount of scrutiny in Key West.
The Commissioners of the FKMCD and the FKMCD Director have acted
responsibly by calling attention to the potential for the new technique in Key
West’s battle against Ae. aegypti and dengue, while also proceeding with
caution. FKMCD has sought Information about the technology from Oxitec.
Oxitec’s responses to concerns have been provided to inform the public using
the FKMCD web site. In addition to Oxitec, FKMCD also relied on many
non-partisan mosquito and vector-borne disease consultants for information.
FKMCD has also sought approval for a small scale test of the proposed
method from an authoritative state or federal agency. Currently no
government agency has claimed any responsibility for issuing approval or a
permit. There are yet unanswered concerns about the appropriateness and
safety of the technology in Key West. As of April 2012, there are no plans to
move forward with a small scale test of the Oxitec strategy in Key West. !
| BuzzWords Volume 12. No.2. Mar/Apr 2012
On March 15, 2012 the Florida Keys Mosquito Control District (FKMCD)
hosted a town hall meeting in Key West to provide information about the use
of a novel mosquito control strategy that promises to reduce Aedes aegypti
populations. The strategy employs a genetically modified Ae. aegypti strain
produced by the company Oxitec. This Ae. aegypti strain contains a genetic
factor that causes lethality in any progeny resulting from matings with the
strain. The factor functions only in nature in the absence of tetracyline in the
larval environment. The presence of tetracycline in the larval laboratory
environment is used to suppress the factor in order to be able to rear the
strain. The Oxitec claim is that releasing males of this strain into a location
like Key West will reduce the fertility of the native female Ae. aegypti that
mate with these modified males. By releasing large numbers of these males
the expectation is that there will be a reduction in naturally occurring Ae.
aegypti with the promise of a corresponding reduction in dengue.!
3!
FKMCD deserves commendations for acting responsibly by opening up the
decision-making process to use this technology and by soliciting broad public input
and advice. The town hall meeting held on March 15, 2012 illustrated the
difficulties, controversy and public concern about using this new technology. The
interest and concerns from scientists and the public at large were openly expressed. !
Interested readers can read excellent summaries of many of the issues including
papers by Eric Hoffman of Friends of the Earth at
http://www.biosafety-info.net/file_dir/21277023124f348b11ef3c4.pdf and by a
group at The Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Biology at
What does all this mean for Key
West and for Florida mosquito
control? I agree with the cautious
approach that has been taken in
Key West regarding this new
technology. However, consider
how we might view this same issue
should dengue return to Key West
with a vengeance. What will be our
view of the new technology should
dengue virus (DENV) serotype 2,3
or 4 appear in Key West with 500
cases and 10 deaths? Recall that a
substantial portion of Key West’s
citizens were likely infected with
DENV-1 during 2009-2010. This
prior infection makes these people
more susceptible to serious disease
upon infection with a second
dengue serotype. Should we have
been less cautious with the Oxitec
proposal? Should Key West take a
chance at least a small scale test of
the Oxitec method with the chance
of reducing Ae. aegypti? Should
large scale releases be considered?
These are difficult questions.!
Figure 1. A 1901 mosquito-proof rain barrel in Cuba.
| BuzzWords Volume 12. No.2. Mar/Apr 2012
http://www.ploscollections.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pntd.0001502 .!
4!
Note that the Oxitec strategy, though novel and with promise, is not the only
strategy that could be used to control Ae. aegypti and reduce dengue transmission.
William Gorgas successfully led a huge campaign that essentially eradicated Ae.
aegypti and brought an end to yellow fever epidemics in Havana, Cuba in 1901
and later in Panama. How was this accomplished? It was an effective and
efficient sanitation campaign designed to destroy every existing Ae. aegypti larval
habitat. Figure 1 shows a 1901 version of a mosquito proof rain barrel from the
sanitation campaign (From: Le Prince, Joseph A. 1916. Mosquito control in
Panama: the eradication of malaria and yellow fever in Cuba and Panama. New
York: G.P. Putnam's Sons). Figure 2 shows a fumigation brigade controlling
mosquitoes in the Panama Canal Zone in 1905 (from NYPL Digital Library at
http://images.nypl.org/index.php?id=1226201&t=w). Is it impossible to use
similar sanitation to eliminate Ae. aegypti in Key West in 2012? Is there the
necessary will in the residents of Key West to eradicate Ae. aegypti?!
One can hardly imagine the cost and difficulties of repeating a Gorgas-style
governmental sanitation campaign in modern-day Key West, Florida. Active
participation by the public in such a campaign is essential. The Key West
community must get behind FKMCD and actively participate in an aggressive
community wide Ae. aegypti eradication program. !
Walter J. Tabachnick!
Director, Florida Medical Entomology Laboratory!
Professor, Department of Entomology and Nematology!
University of Florida, IFAS!
Vero Beach, FL!
| BuzzWords Volume 12. No.2. Mar/Apr 2012
Figure 2. A mosquito sanitation brigade, Panama 1905.
5!
Announcement Attention: webmasters of Mosquito Control web pages#
Please update links to PHEREC technical memoranda. !
The new URL is http://www.pherec.com!
| BuzzWords Volume 12. No.2. Mar/Apr 2012
2012 arbovirus surveillance, Florida 6!
Passing – Bill Lycan!
William (Bill) Lycan, Director of Columbia County Mosquito
Control, passed away suddenly, on March 26, 2012. Bill served
as director of Columbia County Mosquito Control from Aug
1992 until the time of his death. Bill was a man of many hats
and his service to Columbia County included Solid Waste
Director, Recycling Director, and Code Enforcement Director.
For his efforts, Bill received the 2008 directorship award from
DOACS. !
The memorial service for Bill was held April 2 in Lake City, FL.
Thanks to Pam Davis, Bill’s assistant for 20 years, for providing
much of the information given here.!
Bill receiving the 2008 directorship award from
DOACS
| BuzzWords Volume 12. No.2. Mar/Apr 2012
Bill was a native of Tarpon Springs, FL, but spent much of his
life in the Ocala area before moving to Columbia County. Bill is
survived by his mother, Mary Williams, and several siblings.!
7!
Dr. Roxanne Connelly, Editor-in-Chief
Dr. Nathan Burkett-Cadena, Managing Editor
200 9th Street SE
Vero Beach, FL 32962
UF/IFAS/FMEL
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