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The Fall and Rise of Screwworm

construction-physics.com

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Re: The Fall and Rise of Screwworm

#31

Post by computerdork »

whalesalad wrote: post #4

> Eventually capable of producing more than 200 million screwworm flies a week, the Mission factory was a grotesque marvel of insect-producing efficiency. Operating 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, it was, in essence, a 76,000-square-foot artificial wound. Trays full of meat, blood, and water, each one heated to the exact right temperature to stimulate screwworm growth, moved through the facility on a monorail system…

Scenes from the human harvesting operations at in the Matrix come to mind, but am sure it's different than that:)

Re: The Fall and Rise of Screwworm

#32

Post by srean »

I have a question for folks who have background in interventions like these.

Isn't there a risk that the artificially introduced reproductory pressures would select for screwworms that produce males that are resistant to radiation.

My chain of reasoning is that not all the of the irradiated males would be completely sterile. If so, then the next generation would be a mix of hatchlings of not radiated parents and those parents who have not been completely sterilized in spite of radiation -- thereby increasing the proportion of radiation resistant varieties, assuming resistance is an inheritable trait. These may then find themselves at the input side of sterile male generation factories.

The intervention obviously worked, but was that because steps were taken to counteract the possibility of raising radiation resistant varieties.

BTW the article was a great read.

Re: The Fall and Rise of Screwworm

#33

Post by SoftTalker »

srean wrote: post #32

I have a question for folks who have background in interventions like these. Isn't there a risk that the artificially introduced reproductory pressures would select for screwworms that produce males that are resistant to radiation. My chain of reasoning is that not all the of the irradiated males would be completely sterile. If so, then the next generation would be a mix of hatchlings of not radiated parents and thos…

I'm not sure radiation resistance is really a thing. Radiation causes physical damage, it's not like a virus or bacteria that an organism can potentially fight off with an immune response.

The few males that might survive the gamma exposure with intact fertility are probably just ones that didn't get a full dose.

It is rather amazing to me in fact that it's possible to sterilize the males without killing them.

Re: The Fall and Rise of Screwworm

#34

Post by Eric_WVGG »

> The Southwest Animal Health Research Foundation (SWAHRF), an organization formed by a small group of Texas livestock producers… broke the logjam by raising millions of dollars in voluntary donations from Texas ranchers for screwworm eradication.

That can’t be right. The Texas Department of Agriculture published a piece titled “Dollars Don’t Kill Screwworms” just two years ago.

https://texasagriculture.gov/News-Events/Article/10239/OPINI...

> Listen, dollars don’t kill screwworms. Sterile flies do. Detection systems do. We already have the tools to manage this issue because we’ve been doing it successfully for decades.

See? We don't need big government programs to get this under control, we just need farmers to… I dunno… raise and breed their own own sterile flies, or buy them from Walmart.

Re: The Fall and Rise of Screwworm

#35

Post by consensus1 »

jmye wrote: post #30
consensus1 wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

[flagged]

Doing it again:

> during the pandemic livestock inspectors were forced to stay home, vehicles broke down and couldn’t be repaired due to a lack of replacement parts

You can be pedantic about the exact start time, but the initial outbreak was detected in 2021, the barrier breach became clear in 2022 and was widely spread by 2023. In any case this had nothing whatsoever to do with budget cuts in 2025.

Re: The Fall and Rise of Screwworm

#36

Post by natbobc »

Planktonne wrote: post #26

> (Some anti-screwworm efforts may have been hindered by DOGE, which cut APHIS staff, screwworm monitoring programs, and may have delayed funding for the Mexico facility, but it’s hard to be confident about this, and the administration has unsurprisingly rejected these claims.) For an article that is so detailed in other areas, this feels like a very short dismissal of a topic that--regardless of direction--deserves…

DOGE probably didn’t help matters but the problem started to rise in 2023. My gut reaction was “damn that DOGE!” too but they didn’t start with cuts until 2025. So it likely just exasperated an already growing concern. This is the same kind of stuff anti-vaxers don’t get. We left South America out of the equation so when the circumstances of migration and feeding changed so did the status quo of a “screwworm free” line in the sand. Other peoples problems can quickly become everyone’s problem if left unchecked.

Re: The Fall and Rise of Screwworm

#37

Post by Eric_WVGG »

Eric_WVGG wrote: post #34

> The Southwest Animal Health Research Foundation (SWAHRF), an organization formed by a small group of Texas livestock producers… broke the logjam by raising millions of dollars in voluntary donations from Texas ranchers for screwworm eradication. That can’t be right. The Texas Department of Agriculture published a piece titled “Dollars Don’t Kill Screwworms” just two years ago. https://texasagriculture.gov/News-Even…

> Fortunately, an even better location for a barrier existed: the Darien Gap, on the border of Colombia and Panama. At this narrow stretch of land, the barrier would need to be just 60 miles wide.

btw this is that terrifying jungle zone of Panama from the TV show Pluribus. Yes, it is real, and so are those trees.

- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Darién_Gap - https://davesgarden.com/guides/articles/view/2904

Re: The Fall and Rise of Screwworm

#38

Post by goda90 »

SoftTalker wrote: post #33
srean wrote: post #32

I have a question for folks who have background in interventions like these. Isn't there a risk that the artificially introduced reproductory pressures would select for screwworms that produce males that are resistant to radiation. My chain of reasoning is that not all the of the irradiated males would be completely sterile. If so, then the next generation would be a mix of hatchlings of not radiated parents and thos…

I'm not sure radiation resistance is really a thing. Radiation causes physical damage, it's not like a virus or bacteria that an organism can potentially fight off with an immune response. The few males that might survive the gamma exposure with intact fertility are probably just ones that didn't get a full dose. It is rather amazing to me in fact that it's possible to sterilize the males without killing them.

This might be a way to adapt to radiation: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radiosynthesis_(metabolism)

Re: The Fall and Rise of Screwworm

#39

Post by srean »

SoftTalker wrote: post #33
srean wrote: post #32

I have a question for folks who have background in interventions like these. Isn't there a risk that the artificially introduced reproductory pressures would select for screwworms that produce males that are resistant to radiation. My chain of reasoning is that not all the of the irradiated males would be completely sterile. If so, then the next generation would be a mix of hatchlings of not radiated parents and thos…

I'm not sure radiation resistance is really a thing. Radiation causes physical damage, it's not like a virus or bacteria that an organism can potentially fight off with an immune response. The few males that might survive the gamma exposure with intact fertility are probably just ones that didn't get a full dose. It is rather amazing to me in fact that it's possible to sterilize the males without killing them.

Couldn't there be genes that help with repairing the radiation induced damage ?

From what I have read, flora and fauna around Chernobyl seems to have acquired degrees of radiation tolerance.

BTW I am a complete ignoramus in these matters.

Re: The Fall and Rise of Screwworm

#40

Post by [deleted] »

goda90 wrote: post #38
SoftTalker wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not sure radiation resistance is really a thing. Radiation causes physical damage, it's not like a virus or bacteria that an organism can potentially fight off with an immune response. The few males that might survive the gamma exposure with intact fertility are probably just ones that didn't get a full dose. It is rather amazing to me in fact that it's possible to sterilize the males without killing them.

This might be a way to adapt to radiation: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radiosynthesis_(metabolism)

[deleted]
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