Sterile Aussie to pull down NZ flies

The fruit fly was eliminated from Western Australia with a process similar to that proposed in New Zealand

WELLINGTON, New Zealand -- New Zealand scientists see sterility as the key to keeping Australian flies down.

Australia's sheep blowfly, and the millions of dollars of damage it does to sheep each year, may be facing genetically engineered eradication in New Zealand.

New Zealand researchers aiming to eradicate the pest using genetically engineered sterile male flies believe they can launch a trial in about a year, biology researcher Dr. Max Scott told Associated Press news agency Thursday.

The aim of the project is to release millions of sterile male "blowies" to mate in the wild but produce no offspring and potentially eliminate the pest, Scott said.

Blowflies mate only once and repeated use of the sterile insect technique could, in theory, wipe out the species in New Zealand.

Similar projects have worked with other insects including the tsetse fly in Zanzibar, the Queensland fruitfly in Western Australia and the Mediterranean fruitfly in Mexico.

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The virulent Australian blowflies attack sheep, with flystrike costing New Zealand sheep farmers alone 37 million New Zealand dollars (US$15.5 million) a year in lost production and control costs.

Scott said the team has spent the past three years developing a method for producing genetically engineered all-male populations of Australian sheep blowfly ideal for sterile release programs.

Scott, a senior lecturer in genetics at Massey University, has just been awarded the 2001 applied biosystems medal from New Zealand's Society of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology for his research into chromosomes and gene structures.