The Mexican government has started construction on a $51 million facility in southern Mexico as part of an effort to combat the New World screwworm that’s disrupted Mexican cattle exports to the U.S. Mexico’s agriculture ministry said the plant is a joint project with the U.S. and will produce 100 million sterile screwworm flies per week once completed in the first half of next year.
The release of sterile flies reduces the population of wild flies and is a key tool in helping to control the damaging pest. The U.S., which is Mexico’s largest trading partner, is paying $21 million of the cost, and the U.S. is spending $30 million. The U.S. also has plans to open a sterile fly dispersal facility in Texas as part of the ongoing battle against screwworm. The pest carries maggots that burrow into the skin of living animals, causing serious and often fatal damage.
-NAFB