World-first facility to fight sheep disease in South Australia

CANBERRA, Sept. 5 (Xinhua) — A world-first facility in South Australia (SA) has been opened to help fight a major livestock disease.
The government of SA on Wednesday opened the Sterile Insect Technique facility on Kangaroo Island off the state’s south coast.
The facility will breed and release millions of sterile blowflies in an attempt to eradicate flystrike from the island.
Flystrike is a disease that occurs when a fly lays eggs in the fleece of a sheep, and the emerging larvae create an open wound as they feed on underlying skin tissue.
It is a painful disease that can be fatal if left untreated. The Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development in the state of Western Australia (WA) estimates the disease costs the Australian sheep industry 280 million Australian dollars (188.1 million U.S. dollars) every year.
Each week the new Kangaroo Island facility will produce up to 50 million sterile blowflies of the species that causes over 90 percent of flystrike cases.
“These are sterile males and when they mate with the females, there are no eggs produced, and so it’s a way of really interacting with the wild flies to be able to reduce and hopefully eliminate sheep blowflies from Kangaroo Island,” Clare Scriven, SA’s minister for primary industries and regional development, told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.
A cost-benefit analysis compiled by the government found that eradicating sheep blowflies on Kangaroo Island would save sheep farmers up to 88 million Australian dollars (59.1 million U.S. dollars) over 25 years and improve animal welfare.
If successful, the facility, which is made out of shipping containers, can be relocated to other areas to reduce blowfly populations.
Facility manager Helen Brodie from the South Australian Research and Development Institute said it would not be possible to eradicate flystrike on the Australian mainland but that the facility could be deployed to reduce its occurrence. ■