By D'Lyn Ford
NC State University entomologist Maxwell Scott is among a handful of people worldwide with the most thorough understanding of the genetics and lifecycle of the New World screwworm, a blowfly that lays its eggs in wounds or vulnerable spots in livestock, pets, wildlife and humans and feeds on their living tissue.
Scott’s work has helped identify genes that can be used to develop biology-based solutions to control screwworm that are more effective and less expensive. Through U.S. Department of Agriculture-funded research, his lab team developed a male-only line of screwworms that’s now under review with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency under the name NovoFly.
Scott teaches his graduate students about U.S. screwworm suppression efforts that kept the blowfly from spreading from South America up through Mexico and into the U.S. for decades. And on June 3, when USDA experts announced that a case of screwworm had been confirmed in Texas, Scott, who was visiting the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) in Edinburg, Texas, got a tour of the USDA’s new sterile fly distribution center and equipment a stone’s throw away – right before giving a scheduled presentation on screwworm to ranchers in Houston.
We asked Scott to provide insight on efforts to eradicate the New World screwworm and explain new genetic approaches to control the parasite.
Source : ncsu.edu