Courtesy of USDA/APHIS
Last week, the Federal Register included a notice from the Environmental Protection Agency that they have received a request to register a new pesticide product for the treatment of New World Screwworm.
The notice states that the request is from the U.S. Department of Agriculture for “NovoFly male-only genetically engineered (GE) New World screwworm (NWS) in USDA’s Sterile Insect Technique (SIT) programs. Due to the urgent nature of the emergency, the limited time available to authorize the Section 18 quarantine emergency exemption request, and the related FIFRA Section 3 product registration application under review for the same use, EPA is waiving the comment period associated with the emergency exemption request, but is soliciting public comment in conjunction with the application for Section 3 product registration of NovoFly.”
The exemption application was requested to maintain broad suppression and to prevent the northward spread of the New World Screwworm from Mexico to the United States. The notice also includes that, “If NWS enters and establishes in the United States, widespread economic losses are expected; each outbreak can cause millions of dollars in production losses and economic damage. It has been calculated that an outbreak in Texas would cost $1.8 billion to the Texas economy today. USDA-ARS has developed the NovoFly GE NWS using sterile insect technique (SIT), which results in all flies raised being males. Use of male-only NWS populations in SIT effectively doubles the output of traditional SIT (which is dependent on sterile male NWS), providing a significant efficiency.” Any comments must be received on or before April 27, 2026.
Audio Reporting by Dale Sandlin for Southeast AgNet.