Ohio OKs funding for Zika virus traps

COLUMBUS — State health officials have been given the green light to purchase mosquito traps for use around the state to prevent the spread of the Zika virus.

The state Controlling Board today OK’d $99,625 to buy the “BG Sentinel mosquito traps” from California-based Bio-Quip Products Inc., as part of the Ohio Department of Health’s zoonotic disease program. The company is the only domestic distributor of the traps.

According to documents, the traps are “collapsable and light” and “have been recommended as the best traps to capture the Asian tiger mosquito, which has been identified by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention as a vector of Zika virus as well as chikungunya virus and dengue virus.”