The facility will breed millions of sterile New World screwworm flies at Moore Air Base, Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins said Wednesday.

The U.S. government on Wednesday released a five-prong policy initiative to stop the spread of New World screwworms in live cattle and other animal imports, including its plan to build an $8.5 million insect dispersal facility in Texas.

Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins said her department plans to open what amounts to a fly factory by the end of the year. The facility will breed millions of sterile New World screwworm (NWS) flies at Moore Air Base, according to the initiative. The male flies will then be released into the wild to mate with females and prevent them from laying eggs in wounds that become flesh-eating larvae.

It would be only the second facility for breeding such flies in the Western Hemisphere, joining one in Panama that had largely kept the flies from migrating further north until last year.

  • 9blb@feddit.org
    2·
    3 days ago

    It’s already in Mexico. Im not an expert, but I’d assume it will have moved even further north by the time they get this factory up and running.

    The New World Screwworm has been making its way further north through the Americas, Texas officials said, and the fly’s appearance in southern Mexico has worried agriculture and cattle industry officials and veterinarians’ groups.

    They are also building one in southern Mexico, according to the article.