Uruguay: More than 25 million flies per week to be released to fight cattle disease | They are dispersed in the air from airplanes

Uruguay announced the launch National Program for Eradication of Pichera flyhave 25 to 30 million of these insects are released per week. To combat cattle rustling. This parasite, which lays its eggs in animal wounds and its larvae devour the meat, causes losses of more than $40 million annually.

This action Commencing in September 2023 This plague will spread and cover all parts of the country It will be done from south to north with the aim of covering about 1,000 kilometers along the border between Brazil and Argentina.

According to Fernando Matos, Uruguayan Minister of Livestock, Agriculture and Fisheries, Pupae of sterilized flies are purchasedIts presence in the environment will create an immediate decrease in the population of an insect, causing injuries to productive animals, resulting in loss of production, but also injuries to people.

Flies “hibernate” in the country at low temperatures and “revive” them in laboratories.Through a process where they are exposed at room temperature, the minister explained.

Pupae will be produced at a plant owned by the United States-Panama Commission for the Eradication and Prevention of Panamanian Cattle, located in Panama, with the capacity to produce 100 million flies per year. Radioactive flies in the world are responsible for sterilizing them and implementing such programs, Matos said.

When the flies are ready to emerge, Diffusion campaign will be carried out through airplanes And a machine, with software, will measure the number of dispersal flies per nautical mile per week.

Finally, the Uruguayan official pointed out Acts with the aim of reducing the “risk” of “reintroduction into endemic areas”.”. And he concluded: “This is a technique that has been carried out for a long time It manages to accumulate experience and continuous improvement of processes over the past 60 years“.