The United States based Valent Bio Sciences on Monday launched three products of Bacillus Thuringiensis Israelensis bacteria, commonly known as BTI, in the Bangladesh market to be used to destroy larva of the dengue virus carrier Aedis mosquito.
Valent Bio Sciences global business director Jason Clark said at the launching event at a city hotel that the registration of these three products with the Bangladesh government completed two weeks back after the authorities concerned became confirmed about their efficacy through testing.
‘We are here to embrace public health outcomes, not just to promote products,’ said the director.
When asked about prices, he, however, did not give any direct reply, and said, prices would depend on different settings.
Organisers said they had waited two years for registration from the Plant Protection Wing of the Bangladesh government.
The products launched are water soluble pouches branded as VectoMax WSP, tablet branded as VectoBac DT and water dispersible granule branded as VextoBac WDG.
Valent Bio Sciences business manager Seleena Benjamin said the products are proven to kill the mosquito larva collected from the local environment in Bangladesh.
The company’s local representative Safeway Pest Control’s managing director Zahad Thakur said Malaysia, Singapore and Latin American countries, among 66 countries across the world, are using these larvicide products for years.
Safeway Pest Control is importing the products in Bangladesh for the first time, he added.
The Valent Bio Sciences company has been producing larvicides VectoBac strain AM65-52 and VectoMax strain ABTS 1743 which are ‘biorational’ products for mosquito control for quite a long time, he said. Biorational products are typically defined as a pesticide or herbicide having relatively low toxicity and causing relatively little damage to the environment.
‘We are talking to donor agencies like USAID and UNDP so that they supply it to the local government bodies for subsidised prices,’ Zahad Thakur said.
Of the three products, two can be purchased directly from the local retailors as they are approved by the World Health Organisation, he said.
Earlier in August this year, Marshal Agrovet Chemical Industries Ltd was blacklisted by the Dhaka North City Corporation for alleged fraudulence in the import of the BTI pesticide to control the dengue outbreak.
Safeway Pest Control director Delara Louisa Thakur, among others, spoke at the event.
