The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) is doubling down on its fight against screwworm, a type of blowfly that targets mammals and poses a significant threat to the multibillion-dollar cattle industry.
New Approaches
The USDA announced new approaches to combat screwworm, including using AI drones to monitor wildlife and enlisting the help of 40 research projects that would be funded via a grant program launched earlier this year. Additionally, the agency said it is in talks to partner with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to deploy the AI-controlled drones.
U.S. Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins said additional details, including other strategies to eradicate screwworm, would be forthcoming. The USDA expects to provide more details on the potential partnership with DHS later this week when Rollins plans to visit South Texas.
Grand Challenge
The USDA is also funding 40 new projects to help in the fight against screwworm through a grant program it launched in January called the Grand Challenge, which invited farmers and researchers to apply for financial support for their projects. The initiative awarded $105 million to researchers of the 40 projects to develop their proposed solutions.
Scientists consider the use of sterile flies as the most effective method of eradicating screwworm. Male sterile flies are released for the purposes of mating with female screwworm flies so that they produce unviable eggs that can’t develop into the larvae that feed off the flesh of live mammals.
The awarded projects consist of a variety of solutions, including developing male flies with hyper-active sex drives, and enhancing or developing methods to lure and trap flies. Others propose using a minimum-risk insecticide to combat screwworm in livestock and wildlife, detecting wounds using artificial intelligence, using drones to monitor screwworm flies, using insect-killing fungi to control screwworm and using dogs to detect and locate screwworm.
Original reporting: San Antonio Report — read the source article.
