The United States have an ambitious plan to bomb the border with Mexico: with flies

The United States have an ambitious plan to bomb the border with Mexico: with flies


This is part of the plan to contain the “Bichaira Fly” plague. To sterilize flies, they do not use genetic modification.




The United States want to contain the Cochliomyia hominivoraxA fly that, when it is on the larval phase, causes a parasitic disease that mainly affects cattle (although it can also affect man). The plan includes a curious solution: launch millions of sterile flies to contain its expansion. It is interesting to note that this will not be done through genomic editing, but with a technology of decades ago.

X -rays and bright planes

The purpose of the initiative is to contain the spread of the parasite and, for this, what they will do is sterilize millions of flies. AS? With one Technology used since the 70s To combat this plague: the X -rays. After the creation of the larvae and their transformation into a pupa, they are located inside a metal cylinder that is introduced into a range of range irradiation, with a dose between 40 and 65 grays, sufficient to reach the sterility of 95% without compromising their survival.

Once sterilized, they should be sent to the affected areas, in this case, southern Texas and Mexico. To ensure that they reach the correct phase, the puppets are maintained at 10 degrees to slow down their metamorphosis in adults. They are released from airplanes and when the temperature increases, sterile males appear.

Why don’t you do the transgenic flies?

The sterilization of radiation insects has shown effectiveness for decades. The genetic modification is potentially cheaper and efficientBut it is still in the experimental phase and is not ready for large -scale production. Furthermore …

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Source: Terra

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