Latest news with #EdwinBurgess
Canada News.Net
24-07-2025
- Science
- Canada News.Net
USDA revives insect warfare to protect livestock and wildlife
TOPEKA, Kansas: In a campaign that sounds more like a science fiction plot than public policy, the U.S. government is preparing to breed billions of sterile flies and release them from planes over Mexico and southern Texas. The objective? To combat the deadly New World screwworm — a flesh-eating maggot that threatens to wreak havoc on livestock, wildlife, and even household pets. Though bizarre, this approach has proven effective in the past. The targeted pest, the larval form of the New World screwworm fly, feeds on the living tissue of warm-blooded animals. Female flies lay their eggs in open wounds or mucous membranes, and once hatched, the larvae burrow into flesh, causing severe pain, infection, and — if untreated — death. A single infestation can kill a 1,000-pound cow in under two weeks. To halt the fly's spread, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) will release millions of sterile male flies into the wild. These flies, irradiated to prevent fertility, mate with wild females, but no offspring are produced. Over time, the pest population collapses. "It's an exceptionally good technology," says Edwin Burgess, an entomologist at the University of Florida. "It's one of the great scientific solutions to a large-scale problem." This method of biological pest control — called the Sterile Insect Technique — was instrumental in eradicating screwworms from the U.S. and much of Central America by the late 20th century. A fly production facility in Panama, jointly operated by the U.S. and regional partners, has served as the front line of defense, keeping the flies contained in South America. But in late 2024, the screwworm reappeared in southern Mexico, triggering alarms. In response, the USDA plans to expand production by building a new fly factory in southern Mexico by July 2026. Meanwhile, a fly distribution center will open in Texas by the end of this year to receive sterile flies from Panama if needed. Historically, from 1962 to 1975, over 94 billion sterile flies were released in North America to drive the screwworm to extinction. One biological advantage makes this tactic potent: female screwworm flies mate only once in their short adult lives. Ensuring that the majority of them pair with sterile males effectively halts the reproductive cycle. Still, the risk is real and immediate. In May, the U.S. temporarily closed its southern border to live imports of cattle, horses, and bison. It may not reopen fully until September. The screwworm can infect any warm-blooded animal — including humans — and its return would be a devastating blow to the beef industry. Decades ago, the U.S. maintained fly-breeding facilities in Florida and Texas, but those closed after the screwworm was declared eradicated. Now, the USDA wants to scale up again, targeting production of up to 400 million sterile flies per week. This effort will involve US$8.5 million for the Texas distribution hub and $21 million to convert an old fruit fly facility in Mexico. Producing flies isn't as simple as it sounds. Females must be induced to lay eggs, and larvae need a nutritious diet. Past diets included mixtures of horse meat and honey, and later, blood plasma and egg powder. Once mature, the larvae — resembling dark brown Tic Tacs — are packed into sawdust trays to pupate. Even logistics carries risk. Last month, a plane distributing flies near Mexico's Guatemala border crashed, killing three crew members. Air drops, typically conducted with light aircraft, still use variations of mid-century methods — either paper cups or crates dispensed through mechanical devices. Experts warn that once the pest is again under control, the infrastructure should not be dismantled. "Declaring total victory is tempting," says Burgess, "but nature has a way of surprising us. A pest like this can always return."
Yomiuri Shimbun
09-07-2025
- Science
- Yomiuri Shimbun
U.S. Plans to Begin Breeding Billions of Flies to Fight Pest
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — The U.S. government is preparing to breed billions of flies and dump them out of airplanes over Mexico and southern Texas to fight a flesh-eating maggot. That sounds like the plot of a horror movie, but it is part of the government's plans for protecting the U.S. from a bug that could devastate its beef industry, decimate wildlife and even kill household pets. This weird science has worked well before. 'It's an exceptionally good technology,' said Edwin Burgess, an assistant professor at the University of Florida who studies parasites in animals, particularly livestock. 'It's an all-time great in terms of translating science to solve some kind of large problem.' The targeted pest is the flesh-eating larva of the New World Screwworm fly. The U.S. Department of Agriculture plans to ramp up the breeding and distribution of adult male flies — sterilizing them with radiation before releasing them — so they can mate ineffectively with females and over time cause the population to die out. It is more effective and environmentally friendly than spraying the pest into oblivion, and it is how the U.S. and other nations north of Panama eradicated the same pest decades ago. Sterile flies from a factory in Panama kept the flies contained there for years, but the pest appeared in southern Mexico late last year. The USDA expects a new screwworm fly factory to be up and running in southern Mexico by July 2026. It plans to open a fly distribution center in southern Texas by the end of the year so that it can import and distribute flies from Panama if necessary. Fly feeds on live flesh Most fly larvae feed on dead flesh, making the New World screwworm fly and its Old World counterpart in Asia and Africa outliers — and for the American beef industry, a serious threat. Females lay their eggs in wounds and, sometimes, exposed mucus. 'A thousand-pound bovine can be dead from this in two weeks,' said Michael Bailey, president elect of the American Veterinary Medicine Association. Veterinarians have effective treatments for infested animals, but an infestation can still be unpleasant — and cripple an animal with pain. Don Hineman, a retired western Kansas rancher, recalled infected cattle as a youngster on his family's farm. 'It smelled nasty,' he said. 'Like rotting meat.' Using the fly's biology against it The New World screwworm fly is a tropical species, unable to survive Midwestern or Great Plains winters, so it was a seasonal scourge. Still, the U.S. and Mexico bred and released more than 94 billion sterile flies from 1962 through 1975 to eradicate the pest, according to the USDA. The numbers need to be large enough that females in the wild can't help but hook up with sterile males for mating. One biological trait gives fly fighters a crucial wing up: Females mate only once in their weekslong adult lives. Why U.S. wants to breed more flies Alarmed about the fly's migration north, the U.S. temporarily closed its southern border in May to imports of live cattle, horses and bison and it won't be fully open again at least until mid-September. But female flies can lay their eggs in wounds on any warm-blooded animal, and that includes humans. Decades ago, the U.S. had fly factories in Florida and Texas, but they closed as the pest was eradicated. The Panama fly factory can breed up to 117 million a week, but the USDA wants the capacity to breed at least 400 million a week. It plans to spend $8.5 million on the Texas site and $21 million to convert a facility in southern Mexico for breeding sterile fruit flies into one for screwworm flies. Raising hundreds of millions of flies In one sense, raising a large colony of flies is relatively easy, said Cassandra Olds, an assistant professor of entomology at Kansas State University. But, she added, 'You've got to give the female the cues that she needs to lay her eggs, and then the larvae have to have enough nutrients.' Fly factories once fed larvae horse meat and honey and then moved to a mix of dried eggs and either honey or molasses, according to past USDA research. Later, the Panama factory used a mix that included egg powder and red blood cells and plasma from cattle. In the wild, larvae ready for the equivalent of a butterfly's cocoon stage drop off their hosts and onto the ground, burrow just below the surface and grow to adulthood inside a protective casing making them resemble a dark brown Tic Tac mint. In the Panama factory, workers drop them into trays of sawdust. Security is an issue. Sonja Swiger, an entomologist with Texas A&M University's Extension Service, said a breeding facility must prevent any fertile adults kept for breeding stock from escaping. How to drop flies from airplane Dropping flies from the air can be dangerous. Last month, a plane freeing sterile flies crashed near Mexico's border with Guatemala, killing three people. In test runs in the 1950s, according to the USDA, scientists put the flies in paper cups and then dropped the cups out of planes using special chutes. Later, they loaded them into boxes with a machine known as a 'Whiz Packer.' The method is still much the same: Light planes with crates of flies drop those crates. Burgess called the development of sterile fly breeding and distribution in the 1950s and 1960s one of the USDA's 'crowning achievements.' Some agriculture officials argue now that new factories shouldn't be shuttered after another successful fight. 'Something we think we have complete control over — and we have declared a triumph and victory over — can always rear its ugly head again,' Burgess said. Mexico to open sterile fly plant MEXICO CITY (Reuters) — Mexico's government said on Monday that it has started to build a $51 million facility in the country's south as part of an effort to combat screwworm, a pest that has disrupted Mexican exports of cattle to the United States. Mexico's agriculture ministry said in a statement that the plant, a joint project with the U.S., will produce 100 million sterile screwworm flies per week once completed in the first half of 2026.
Daily Mail
04-07-2025
- Science
- Daily Mail
US government to release billions of flies into Mexico to stop flesh-eating insects from crossing border
Scientists are preparing to breed and drop billions of flies on Mexico to halt a flesh-eating parasite from crossing the border. The Trump Administration is leading the effort to prevent the spread of the New World Screwworm, which was eradicated in the US over 40 years ago but resurfaced in Mexico in late 2024. According to US Department of Agriculture (USDA), the scientific name for the parasite, Cochliomyia hominivorax, roughly translates to 'man-eater.' This parasite lays its eggs in the wounds of warm-blooded animals, causing tissue damage and often kills livestock within two weeks if left untreated. Scientists will use a proven method called the Sterile Insect Technique (SIT) in which male screwworm flies will be irradiated to make them sterile, then released by planes across southern Mexico and parts of Texas starting in mid-2025. These sterile flies will mate with wild females, preventing reproduction and gradually reducing the population over time. Edwin Burgess, an assistant professor at the University of Florida who studies parasites, said: 'It's an all-time great in terms of translating science to solve some kind of large problem.' A breeding hub in southern Texas is set to open by the end of 2025, with a major facility in Metapa, Mexico, expected to be completed by July 2026. While a fly factory in Panama produces 117 million flies per week, the USDA is ramping up efforts, aiming for 400 million flies weekly by leveraging new plants in Texas and Mexico. Leading the charge domestically, the USDA's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service is collaborating with Panamanian officials, Texas A&M, the University of Florida, Kansas State University, and Mexican authorities. To support these ambitious goals, officials are investing $8.5 million in Texas and $21 million in Mexico to convert facilities into fruit fly plants. Experts warn that the ripple effects of a screwworm invasion could be severe, resulting in mass livestock losses, skyrocketing beef and dairy prices, and deepening food supply instability. Female screwworms can lay up to 300 eggs at a time, and more than 3,000 in their short lives. Infections can be visible as wriggling maggots on the surface of the skin. The larvae bore into live tissue, feeding on the flesh and deepening wounds that quickly become infected. The USDA describes the maggots as resembling 'tiny, white screws' that burrow deeper over time using hook-like mouths. Officials warn that if the infestation spreads unchecked, it could devastate cattle herds across the southern US, especially in states like Texas, which holds 14 percent of the country's cattle. The USDA stated in a press release: 'When NWS fly larvae (maggots) burrow into the flesh of a living animal, they cause serious, often deadly damage to the animal.' The US has also approved $165 million in additional emergency funds for enhanced surveillance, stockpiles, quarantine pens, and border safeguards. SIT was first tested in the 1950s on Curaçao, then scaled for America's eradication campaigns of the 1960s through 1970s. This eco-friendly tactic succeeded without insecticide sprays. Some experts caution that while SIT is species-specific and non-toxic, making it unlikely to be weaponized, it still carries risks. The recent crash of a plane releasing sterile flies near Guatemala, which killed three people, highlights that even non-chemical methods carry serious real-world dangers. According to USDA scientists, fly larvae in the wild drop from their hosts after feeding, burrow into the soil, and pupate. In the lab, they are moved to sawdust trays where they mature into adults, each resembling a dark brown Tic-Tac mint before hatching. But raising hundreds of millions of flies is not simple. Flies require precise conditions to reproduce. ' Cassandra Olds, an entomologist at Kansas State, said: 'You've got to give the female the cues that she needs to lay her eggs, and then the larvae have to have enough nutrients.' 'Feed typically includes egg powder, cattle blood plasma, and molasses,' she added. The New World Screwworm first broke through containment in Panama's Darién Gap in 2022, an area where over 1.2 million migrants headed for the US crossed in recent years. The same route may have helped transport infected livestock or injured animals that enabled the parasite to spread northward. As of June 2024, screwworms have been found just 500 miles from the US border. Models predict that by 2055, the parasite could infest Texas, Louisiana, Florida, Arizona, and even California, due to warming temperatures that allow it to survive year-round. 'Something we think we have complete control over, and we've declared victory over, can always rear its ugly head again,' said Burgess.
CTV News
04-07-2025
- Science
- CTV News
The U.S. plans to dump billions of flies from planes to fight a flesh-eating maggot
A worker drops New World screwworm fly larvae into a tray at a facility that breeds sterile flies in Pacora, Panama, in January 2024. (Panama-United States Commission for the Eradication and Prevention of Cattle Screwworms via AP) TOPEKA, Kansas — The U.S. government is preparing to breed billions of flies and dump them out of airplanes over Mexico and southern Texas to fight a flesh-eating maggot. That sounds like the plot of a horror movie, but it is part of the government's plans for protecting the U.S. from a bug that could devastate its beef industry, decimate wildlife and even kill household pets. This weird science has worked well before. 'It's an exceptionally good technology,' said Edwin Burgess, an assistant professor at the University of Florida who studies parasites in animals, particularly livestock. 'It's an all-time great in terms of translating science to solve some kind of large problem.' The targeted pest is the flesh-eating larva of the New World Screwworm fly. The U.S. Department of Agriculture plans to ramp up the breeding and distribution of adult male flies — sterilizing them with radiation before releasing them. They mate with females in the wild, and the eggs laid by the female aren't fertilized and don't hatch. There are fewer larvae, and over time, the fly population dies out. It is more effective and environmentally friendly than spraying the pest into oblivion, and it is how the U.S. and other nations north of Panama eradicated the same pest decades ago. Sterile flies from a factory in Panama kept the flies contained there for years, but the pest appeared in southern Mexico late last year. The USDA expects a new screwworm fly factory to be up and running in southern Mexico by July 2026. It plans to open a fly distribution center in southern Texas by the end of the year so that it can import and distribute flies from Panama if necessary. Fly feeds on live flesh Most fly larvae feed on dead flesh, making the New World screwworm fly and its Old World counterpart in Asia and Africa outliers — and for the American beef industry, a serious threat. Females lay their eggs in wounds and, sometimes, exposed mucus. 'A thousand-pound bovine can be dead from this in two weeks,' said Michael Bailey, president elect of the American Veterinary Medicine Association. Veterinarians have effective treatments for infested animals, but an infestation can still be unpleasant — and cripple an animal with pain. Don Hineman, a retired western Kansas rancher, recalled infected cattle as a youngster on his family's farm. 'It smelled nasty,' he said. 'Like rotting meat.' How scientists will use the fly's biology against it The New World screwworm fly is a tropical species, unable to survive Midwestern or Great Plains winters, so it was a seasonal scourge. Still, the U.S. and Mexico bred and released more than 94 billion sterile flies from 1962 through 1975 to eradicate the pest, according to the USDA. The numbers need to be large enough that females in the wild can't help but hook up with sterile males for mating. One biological trait gives fly fighters a crucial wing up: Females mate only once in their weekslong adult lives. Why the U.S. wants to breed more flies Alarmed about the fly's migration north, the U.S. temporarily closed its southern border in May to imports of live cattle, horses and bison and it won't be fully open again at least until mid-September. But female flies can lay their eggs in wounds on any warm-blooded animal, and that includes humans. Decades ago, the U.S. had fly factories in Florida and Texas, but they closed as the pest was eradicated. The Panama fly factory can breed up to 117 million a week, but the USDA wants the capacity to breed at least 400 million a week. It plans to spend $8.5 million on the Texas site and $21 million to convert a facility in southern Mexico for breeding sterile fruit flies into one for screwworm flies. How to raise hundreds of millions of flies In one sense, raising a large colony of flies is relatively easy, said Cassandra Olds, an assistant professor of entomology at Kansas State University. But, she added, 'You've got to give the female the cues that she needs to lay her eggs, and then the larvae have to have enough nutrients.' Fly factories once fed larvae horse meat and honey and then moved to a mix of dried eggs and either honey or molasses, according to past USDA research. Later, the Panama factory used a mix that included egg powder and red blood cells and plasma from cattle. In the wild, larvae ready for the equivalent of a butterfly's cocoon stage drop off their hosts and onto the ground, burrow just below the surface and grow to adulthood inside a protective casing making them resemble a dark brown Tic Tac mint. In the Panama factory, workers drop them into trays of sawdust. Security is an issue. Sonja Swiger, an entomologist with Texas A&M University's Extension Service, said a breeding facility must prevent any fertile adults kept for breeding stock from escaping. How to drop flies from an airplane Dropping flies from the air can be dangerous. Last month, a plane freeing sterile flies crashed near Mexico's border with Guatemala, killing three people. In test runs in the 1950s, according to the USDA, scientists put the flies in paper cups and then dropped the cups out of planes using special chutes. Later, they loaded them into boxes with a machine known as a 'Whiz Packer.' The method is still much the same: Light planes with crates of flies drop those crates. Burgess called the development of sterile fly breeding and distribution in the 1950s and 1960s one of the USDA's 'crowning achievements.' Some agriculture officials argue now that new factories shouldn't be shuttered after another successful fight. 'Something we think we have complete control over — and we have declared a triumph and victory over — can always rear its ugly head again,' Burgess said. John Hanna, The Associated Press
Russia Today
04-07-2025
- Health
- Russia Today
US to drop billions of flies on Mexico and Texas
US authorities are preparing to release billions of flies from airplanes over Mexico and southern Texas to stop the spread of a dangerous parasite, the Associated Press (AP) has reported. The move aims to protect livestock, wildlife, and household pets from a flesh-eating maggot. Unlike most flies that feed on rotting or dead tissue, the screwworm fly poses a far greater threat as it lays its eggs in open wounds or mucous membranes of living warm-blooded animals and humans. Once hatched, the larvae burrow into the flesh, feeding on living tissue from the inside out, often causing severe infections or death if left untreated. 'A thousand-pound bovine can be dead from this in two weeks,' Michael Bailey, president-elect of the American Veterinary Medical Association, told the news agency. The US Department of Agriculture (USDA) is reportedly planning to mass-breed adult male flies, sterilize them using radiation, and release them into the wild. The sterile males will mate with wild females, producing no offspring and gradually wiping out the parasite population. 'It's an exceptionally good technology,' said Edwin Burgess, an assistant professor at the University of Florida who studies parasites. He added that it could help solve 'some kind of large problem.' The measure is seen as a more effective and environmentally friendly method of disinsectization than spraying pesticides, the AP noted, adding that other nations north of Panama eradicated the same pest decades ago. Sterile flies from a factory in the Central American state reportedly kept the dangerous insects contained there for years, but they reappeared in southern Mexico at the end of 2024. According to the AP, the USDA will launch a new screwworm fly facility in southern Mexico as soon as next summer, with a fly distribution center expected to begin operating by the end of the current year. This will enable the US to import and distribute flies from Panama if necessary. The department is reportedly planning to spend some $8.5 million on the Texas facility and $21 million to convert a site in southern Mexico, currently used for breeding sterile fruit flies, into one for screwworm flies.
