The Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services hosted a series of Zika workshops for mosquito control programs throughout Florida, which concluded last week. The department hosted regional workshops in the following counties to discuss mosquito surveillance and control measures: Alachua, Brevard, Broward, Hillsborough, Lee, Leon and Okaloosa.
“As we enter into the warmer months, it’s especially important that Florida communities are equipped with the knowledge and resources they need for their Zika-related response efforts,” said Commissioner of Agriculture Adam H. Putnam.
The department continues to support local programs by providing mosquito testing at the Bronson Animal Disease Diagnostic Laboratory. To date, nearly 90,000 individual mosquitoes, represented by more than 6,500 pools of mosquitoes, have been tested for the presence of the Zika virus. Of those collected in 2017, none has yielded positive results.
While the Florida Department of Health is the lead agency in this public health crisis, the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services is supporting efforts by:
- Providing technical assistance to mosquito control programs and the Department of Health;
- Monitoring mosquito control activities across the state and notifying local mosquito control programs of arbovirus activity or events;
- Identifying resources to conduct incident-related mosquito control efforts.
For more information regarding Zika, visit the Florida Department of Health’s website here.
