Item request has been placed!
×
Item request cannot be made.
×
Processing Request
PARASITIC PARATROOPS.
Item request has been placed!
×
Item request cannot be made.
×
Processing Request
- Author(s): Quayle, Catherine
- Source:
Environment. Dec91, Vol. 33 Issue 10, p21-21. 1/3p. 1 Illustration, 1 Cartoon or Caricature.
- Additional Information
- Subject Terms:
- Subject Terms:
- Abstract:
This article states how the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations is working to combat screw worm flies in Libya. In February 1991, FAO began dropping about 40 million sterile male screw worm flies per week over the northern coast of Libya, where screw worm fly larvae killed 12,000 head of cattle in 1990. The United Nations predicted that the flesh-eating fly, which was accidentally imported with a flock of infected South American sheep, could spread rapidly through North and sub-Saharan Africa and move into southern Europe and Asia if left unchecked. The technique, which has been used to eradicate the flies from North America, inundates fertile female flies which can only mate once, with sterile male flies until the population dies out. FAO obtained the flies from a U.S. Department of Agriculture laboratory in Mexico after some political finagling because of a law stating that no U.S. agency can provide high technology to Libya.
No Comments.