Millions of sterile male blowflies will be bred at a world-first facility and released to mate with females in a trial aiming to end flystrike on the island.
Millions of sterile male blowflies will be bred and released to mate with females in a flystrike eradication trial on Kangaroo Island .A world-first facility has opened on South Australia's Kangaroo Island to try and eradicate a condition that costs the Australian sheep industry almost $300 million a year.
The flystrike facility — made out of shipping containers — is unique because it can be relocated to other areas."That's something that hasn't occurred before and really does present a lot of potential benefits for the rest of our state as well," Ms Scriven said. Facility manager Helen Brodie, from the South Australian Research and Development Institute , said the fly species being bred was responsible for starting around 90 per cent of fly strike cases.The sterile flies will be released in their pupal stage and testing has occurred in recent months to perfect the release method from an aircraft.
"We're hoping that by releasing them in their pupal cases, they're a little bit more resilient and it also saves us a fair bit of labour and time.Helen Brodie says the project will be a test to see if eradicating flystrike is possible through the use of sterile flies.Ms Brodie said it would not be possible to eradicate flystrike on the mainland, but the relocatable station would be a "significant tool" for reducing its occurrence.
Animal Welfare Sheep Flystrike Blowfly Kangaroo Island Farming Wool Flyblown Blowflies Sterile Insect Technique SIT Primary Industries Minister Clare Scriven Sterile Flies
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