Fly lab shut

THE Australian Government has overturned a recommendation to keep open a CSIRO research facil ity at Laloki in Papua New Guinea. The facility is one of only two in the world which can breed a genetically altered version of the dreaded agricultural pest, the screw worm fly.

The Australian Department of Prim ary Industry has acted to close the Laloki facility against the advice of the CSIRO.

Screw worm fly is considered to be potentially as devastating as foot and mouth disease by the CSIRO’s Doctor Phillip Spradbery. If the fly was accidentally introduced to Australia, Dr Spradbery says it could cost pastoral in dustries up to As3oo million each year.

But the closure of the Laloki facility will save the Department of Primary In dustry about A 5200,000 and, according to Dr Spradbery, will leave Australia without any response capability if screw

worm fly is introduced.

The Laloki centre has the capacity to breed 40 million sterile screw worm flies a month. The strategy is that if the fly is detected in an area of Australia the ster ile flies would be released in that area.

The fertile flies attempt to breed with the sterile flies, without successfully pro ducing offspring, and the total fly population begins to decline, dying off

rapidly.

Similar techniques have been used by the CSIRO in trials against other pests with considerable success. Australia’s

notorious blowfly has been targetted by

the CSIRO with a genetic modification programme being developed at its Black Mountain centre near Canberra.

Genetic modification of insect pests such as the blowfly which causes se rious problems for Australian sheep far mers - is being seen as a realistic alternative to expensive, highly toxic pes ticides which are now less favoured by more environmentally-aware producers, farmers and consumers. □