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• The Republic of the Marshall Islands has selected Oxitec's Friendly™ Aedes aegypti solution for a new pilot intervention to control the disease-spreading invasive Aedes aegypti mosquito.
• The project is a partnership between the Republic of the Marshall Islands, the Pacific Island Health Officers' Association, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and Oxitec.
• Aedes aegypti has spread globally and is the primary vector of diseases such as dengue, Zika, chikungunya and yellow fever.
• Deployments of the Friendly™ Aedes aegypti are planned to be conducted on Ebeye Island where, in 2019, a severe dengue outbreak forced a 'state of health emergency'.

OXFORD, England, March 31, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Oxitec Ltd, the leading developer of insect-based biological solutions to control pests that transmit disease, destroy crops and harm livestock, announced that it has joined a new partnership formed to combat the Aedes aegypti mosquito in the Republic of the Marshall Islands (RMI), in the Pacific. Working in partnership with RMI, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Pacific Island Health Officers' Association (PIHOA), Oxitec will supply Friendly™ Aedes aegypti and transfer knowhow for self-sustained releases of the solution on Ebeye Island, which has been affected by serious dengue outbreaks and is home to more than 15,000 people.

In assessing the vector management tools available to address the invasive Aedes aegypti mosquito, RMI government experts selected Oxitec's Friendly™ Aedes aegypti as the most sustainable and operationally effective option well-suited for deployment in the unique ecosystem in the RMI.  

This pilot program will focus on equipping RMI with Friendly™ Aedes aegypti products and the technical training and support to integrate them into RMI's current vector control efforts, with the aim of establishing a strong model for making safe, scalable vector control solutions available to a broader range of governments and communities seeking to control the Aedes aegypti mosquito in the Pacific.

The first phase of the project will include the importation of Friendly™ Aedes aegypti products to RMI and training and capacity-building efforts for teams that will carry out future releases. The project team aims to start releasing  Friendly™ Aedes aegypti following regulatory approvals by RMI government authorities, and will focus deployments on the island of Ebeye, which is the most densely populated island in RMI. Since the late 1980s, dengue, and other mosquito-borne diseases, have burdened communities in RMI. In 2019, a dengue epidemic forced the government of RMI to declare a State of Health Emergency.

Oxitec's CEO, Grey Frandsen, said, "We're honoured that our Friendly™ Aedes aegypti solution has been selected by the Ministry of Health of the Republic of the Marshall Islands for a groundbreaking new pilot program to address the invasive Aedes aegypti mosquito in the RMI. We're also thankful to be working alongside such excellent partners, all of whom are coming together to address this critical public health challenge. We've built this safe, sustainable technology to be scalable and deployable globally, and we're looking forward to demonstrating its effectiveness in this important effort."

"We selected the Friendly™ solution to manage Aedes aegypti on Ebeye on the basis of its track record for outstanding vector control and environmental safety in other countries, and we're delighted to have built a world-class coalition of organisations to deliver in our communities," added Jack Niedenthal, Secretary of Health and Human Services, Republic of the Marshall Islands.

Oxitec's just-add-water product produces non-biting Friendly™ male mosquitoes over time, which mate with invasive, biting Aedes aegypti females. Their female offspring cannot survive, which means fewer biting female mosquitoes in the following generations. Already deployed in the US and Brazil, in urban pilots in the city of Indaiatuba in Brazil, deployments of the Friendly™ Aedes aegypti in densely populated communities led to up to 96% suppression of Aedes aegypti populations. The Friendly™ Aedes aegypti product is now serving cities, communities and businesses across Brazil. This solution controls only this particular mosquito species, without harming beneficial insects such as bees and butterflies. 

About Oxitec    

Oxitec is the leading developer of biological solutions to control pests that transmit disease, destroy crops and harm livestock. Founded in 2002 at the University of Oxford, Oxitec is led by a passionate team comprised of 15 nationalities and is supported by world-class public, private and non-profit partners.

Learn more at oxitec.com. 

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SOURCE Oxitec Ltd