PIRACICABA, Brazil,
November 30, 2016 /PRNewswire/ --
A new survey conducted in November shows the use of Friendly™
Aedes, the genetically engineered mosquito that fights Aedes
aegypti, is now supported by 92.8% of the population in
Piracicaba city, Brazil. The
public support for Oxitec's vector control solution has
consistently grown as residents in this area continue to realize
the benefits of the product.
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"The growing popularity of Friendly™ Aedes in Piracicaba
reflects the diligent work of public health agents and of Oxitec's
team to explain what our mosquito is and how it works", said
Glen Slade, director of Oxitec do
Brasil, the company that produces Friendly™ Aedes. "This high rate
of approval is also a consequence of the benefits this solution
brings to the people in Piracicaba including the population
reduction of wild Aedes aegypti and a significant drop in
dengue fever cases as reported by Piracicaba's Epidemiologic
Surveillance service in July
2016."
The survey, designed by the CW7 Market Research Institute, was
conducted between November
1st and 7th, 2016, and approached
1,200 city residents older than 16. The margin of error is 2.8%
(added or subtracted) and the confidence interval is 95%. The
November 2016 figure of 92.8% is an
improvement from the 88.3% level of acceptance measured in
June 2016.
Since the project's debut in CECAP/Eldorado in April 2015, CW7 opinion polls also show that
awareness of the project among Piracicaba's residents has increased
throughout the city from 80.3% to 97.6%.
Oxitec has worked diligently in conjunction with the Health
Secretariat of Piracicaba to communicate the details and benefits
of the project to the public. As the project has expanded from a
single neighborhood to encompass the larger central region of
Piracicaba, which has 60,000 residents, the communication tools
used to build awareness and support for the Friendly™ Aedes Project
have included newspapers, billboards, bus door posters, radio spots
and an information kiosk at Piracicaba's largest shopping mall.
"The survey shows convincingly that our community engagement
activities have been extremely effective. I am thrilled with both
the population's awareness of the technology and their support for
Friendly™ Aedes", said Guilherme
Trivellato, Oxitec's field work coordinator.
How Friendly™ Aedes
works
Oxitec has been working in Aedes
aegypti control for more than a decade. It is a pioneer in
the use of a biological method to suppress wild populations of this
dangerous mosquito species through the release of
Friendly™ Aedes males, which don't bite and don't
transmit disease. When released, these males search for wild
females to mate, and their offspring inherit a self-limiting gene
that makes them die before reaching adulthood.
Friendly™ Aedes' offspring also inherit a
fluorescent marker that makes them easy to identify in the
laboratory. This allows tracking and measuring at a level never
before achieved, making effectiveness assessment and monitoring
more accurate throughout the whole Friendly™ Aedes
deployment programme.
Unlike other approaches, Friendly™ Aedes
mosquitoes don't leave any ecological footprint.
Friendly™ Aedes die along with their offspring, so that
their presence doesn't persist in the environment.
About Oxitec
Oxitec is a pioneer in using genetic engineering to control
insect pests that spread disease and damage crops, and was founded
in 2002 as a spinout from Oxford
University (UK). Oxitec is a subsidiary of Intrexon
Corporation (NYSE: XON), which engineers biology to help
solve some of the world's biggest problems. Follow us on
Twitter at @Oxitec.
Oxitec Contact:
Matthew Warren
Press Officer
Tel: +44(0)1235-832-393
info@oxitec.com
SOURCE Oxitec Ltd