Courtesy of USDA/APHIS
The U.S. Department of Agriculture has been working to eradicate the New World Screwworm through a five-pronged plan and Under Secretary for Marketing and Regulatory Programs Dudley Hoskins provided an update on their efforts so far.
Under Secretary Hoskins said, “One of those key pillars under that five-pronged plan was enhancing our capability and infrastructure and enhancing the sterile fly production that we currently have. We’re still relying on our facility in Panama that produces about 100 million sterile flies per week. We continue to disperse those wherever and however we can when we’re seeing the highest risk movement of flies in Mexico.”
“The Secretary has initiated an additional dispersal facility in Tampico, Mexico that we completed construction on last November. It helps us be more nimble in our aerial dispersal in Mexico, places hard to get to, so that’s been a critical asset to us in that toolbox. Most recently, the Secretary was in McAllen, Texas at Moyer Base and participated in a ribbon-cutting ceremony to bring the new dispersal facility online in McAllen. That dispersal facility is operational. It’s dispersing flies as we speak,” said Hoskins.
Audio Reporting by Dale Sandlin for Southeast AgNet.