Abstract

BackgroundThe stay-at-home orders imposed in early April 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic in various states complicated mosquito control activities across the United States (US), and Florida was no exception. Mosquito control programs are the first line of defense against mosquito-borne pathogens. The purpose of this study was to examine the capabilities of Florida mosquito programs to implement key mosquito measures during the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown.MethodsUsing a self-administered online survey, we examined the capabilities of all Florida mosquito control programs (both state-approved mosquito districts, N = 63; and open programs, N = 27) at a time when the state of Florida was still under heightened awareness of, stay-at-home orders and planning a phase 1 reopening over the COVID-19 pandemic (June to July 2020). The final sample included mosquito control programs structured as the Board of County Commissioners (BOCC) (n = 42), independent tax district (n = 16), municipal (n = 10), and health or emergency department (n = 5). We used descriptive statistics to summarize information about the characteristics of responding programs, their implemented mosquito control and surveillance activities. wWe used bivariate analysis to compare the characteristics of responding programs and the self-reported mosquito measures.ResultsOf the recruited mosquito control programs, 73 completed the survey (81.1% response rate; 73/90). Of these, 57.5% (n = 42) were Board of County Commissioners (BOCC) mosquito control programs, 21.9% (n = 16) were independent tax district programs, 13.7% (n = 10) were municipal mosquito control programs, and only 6.8% (n = 5) were either health or emergency department mosquito control programs. Except for arbovirus surveillance, most programs either fully or partially performed larval (61.8%) and adult (78.9%) surveillance; most programs conducted species-specific control for Aedes aegypti (85.2%, n = 54), Aedes albopictus (87.3%, n = 55), Culex quinquefasciatus (92.1%, n = 58), and Culex nigripalpus (91.9%, n = 57).ConclusionsFindings underscore the importance of ongoing mosquito control activities, and suggest that Florida mosquito control programs are vigilant and have significant capability to handle potential mosquito-borne disease threats, but arbovirus surveillance systems (laboratory testing of mosquito pools and testing of human and nonhuman specimens for arboviruses) are needed during pandemics as well.

Highlights

  • The stay-at-home orders imposed in early April 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic in various states complicated mosquito control activities across the United States (US), and Florida was no exception

  • Five state-approved programs did not respond to the survey: one was due to the death of the mosquito director; one had the person responsible for mosquito activities reassigned to COVID-19 response, one did not have a person responsible for mosquito activities at the time of the survey and two did not respond

  • Most responding programs (97.3%, n = 71 of 73) indicated performing mosquito control activities either fully or partially during the COVID-19 pandemic, and only 7.5% (n = 4 of 53) of programs that responded to the question “to what extent has COVID-19 affected

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Summary

Introduction

The stay-at-home orders imposed in early April 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic in various states complicated mosquito control activities across the United States (US), and Florida was no exception. Mosquito-borne diseases pose a special challenge to public health practitioners and mosquito control districts [4,5,6] owing to their complex nature (biological transmission complexity) [7, 8] and potential to produce epidemics, in areas that institutionally struggle to sustain mosquito management [9]. This makes surveillance and control key aspects for preventing mosquito-borne diseases and emerging arboviruses [4]. Surveillance as a key aspect of effective mosquito control and prevention [2, 15] is important in economically depressed subtropical areas of the United States [1]

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