USDA PROGRAM TO FIGHT SCREWWORMS IN LIVESTOCK
Sterile screwworm flies will be
released this weekend in Miami, Florida, and Albuquerque, New
Mexico, to combat a potential outbreak of screwworms, a serious
pest of livestock, the Agriculture Department said.
    The action follows identification April 21 of screwworm
larvae in a hunting dog which passed through airports in Miami
and Albuquerque while being returned to the United States from
Venezuela, it said.
    Sexually sterilized screwworm flies will be released twice
a week for six weeks in an effort to eradicate any breeding
populations of the flies.
    Adult femals usually mate only once in their lifetime and
eggs resulting from matings between sterile and fertile flies
will not hatch, thus ending the life cycle, it said.
 Reuter
