U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins announced this week USDA immediately will begin work on a New World screwworm (NWS) sterile fly facility at Moore Air Base in southern Texas. It’s expected to be completed this year.
Currently, only one facility in the world produces sterile screwworm flies. That facility, located in Panama, can produce about 117 million flies per week. However, to form an effective barrier along the U.S. southern border, upwards of 300 million are needed weekly.
Moore Air Base is an ideal location for U.S. sterile fly production. The base previously was used to train fighter pilots in WWII before serving as a dispersal location for screwworm fly eradication efforts in the 1960s and beyond. The base’s proximity to the border makes it easy for sterile flies to quickly be deployed to the areas of the U.S. most at risk.
USDA also has invested in the conversion of an existing fruit fly facility in Mexico to one that produces NWS sterile flies. This conversion is an important part of the overall strategy to counter NWS in Mexico, but additional sterile fly production within the U.S. also is needed to protect the cattle herd long term.
For more information on NWS, click here.