Anastasia Mosquito Control District Saint Augustine, Florida, United States
Abstract: Anastasia Mosquito Control District (AMCD), St. Augustine, Florida has collaborated with universities, institutes, and industries to investigate and develop new methods/techniques to improve customer service, arbovirus and mosquito population surveillance, and operational control. These collaborative projects and their accomplishments have benefited AMCD’s operational programs. AMCD has collaborated with industry partners to evaluate, modify, and improve the efficacy of several different types of surveillance and control traps, attractants, repellents, insecticides, and equipment. The district built a wind tunnel / olfactormeter laboratory, a droplet laboratory with a laser machine to characterize insecticide sprays, 24 field larvicide evaluation pools, three large outdoor enclosures, a quarantine laboratory with two green houses, bioassay laboratory, and a molecular laboratory for applied research. These laboratory conditions and facilitates promote and benefit applied research and allow the district to be competitive for several grants from federal, state, and industry partners. The district trains 6-7 visiting scientists world wide,7-8 intern students, and generates 10-15 applied research articles annually. Currently, AMCD has 5 Ph.D. Scientists and 5 M.S. Biotechnicians included 1 Ph.D. student (through the University of Florida) in the team with 2 Federal grants, 3 State grants, and 5 industry funded projects. In addition, the Disease Vector Education Center (6,000 s.f.) and the SIT mass rearing facility (6,000 s.f.) are under construction and expected to be completed by the end of 2022. Since 2004, the district began an applied research program, enhanced employee training and public education, and adopted new technology and innovation that have improved operation’s efficiency and saved millions of tax payers money.
