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.