The U.S. government is preparing to breed billions of flies and deploy them from planes over Mexico and South Texas to combat a flesh-eating pest.
While this may sound like a plot from a horror movie, it is part of a governmental initiative aimed at protecting the U.S. from an insect that threatens the beef industry, wildlife, and even household pets. This unconventional scientific approach has yielded successful results in the past.
Edwin Burgess, an assistant professor at the University of Florida who focuses on animal parasites, particularly in livestock, stated, “This is an exceptionally good technology. It perfectly translates science into solutions for some major issues.”
The targeted pest is the flesh-eating larva of the New World screwworm fly. The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) plans to ramp up the breeding and distribution of sterilized male flies, which will be irradiated before their release. These males will mate with wild females, resulting in eggs that do not hatch. This will lead to a decrease in larvae over time, eventually reducing the fly population.
This technique is considered more effective and environmentally friendly compared to traditional spraying methods for pest control. The U.S. and other countries north of Panama have successfully eradicated the same pest for decades. A sterilized fly facility in Panama has managed to control the population there for years, but the pest resurfaced in southern Mexico late last year.
In response to the pest discovery, the U.S. imposed a ban on cattle shipments from Mexico last November. This ban was lifted in February after protocols were established to assess animals before they enter the country. In May, the USDA reported “unacceptable progress northward” of the screwworm.
Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins communicated on social media that “the last time this devastating pest invaded the U.S., it took the livestock industry 30 years to recover. We cannot allow this to happen again.”
The screwworm is a larva of the Cochliomyia hominivorax fly that can invade the tissues of any warm-blooded animal, including humans. The parasite penetrates the skin of animals, causing severe damage that can be lethal.