Florida officials says 90,000 mosquitoes negative for Zika

No mosquitoes in Florida have tested positive for Zika virus, The Associated Press reported on Friday.

Nearly 90,000 individual mosquitoes, in more than 6,500 pools of the insects, were tested with the support of the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer services.

Of those collected in 2017, none yielded a positive test result, the agency said in a statement.

Humans contract the Zika virus through bites by infected Aedes mosquitoes.

There are usually little to no symptoms but for pregnant women, Zika can infect the fetus and cause a number of devastating birth defects from preterm labor, abnormal brain growth, among others.

People in subtropic areas are encouraged to wear bug spray to protect against mosquito bites and the Zika virus.

Last month, the National Institutes of Health announced the next phase of testing for a Zika vaccine, moving onto an expanded human trial with thousands of test subjects.

Scientists hope to complete the study by 2019.