Belize to Receive Sterile Flies From US to Fight Screwworm Outbreak

The Ministry of Agriculture will be getting a boost in its fight against the spread of New World screwworm in Belize. After weeks of requesting assistance from the US Department of Agriculture, the country will receive a disbursement of sterile flies to combat the parasite’s spread. The ministry had initially written to the USDA’s Animal & Plant Health Inspection Service to request to disperse flies in Belize and was unsuccessful. However, according to Prime Minister John Briceno, in recent days, the regional body has had a change of heart and will be moving to assist Belize. 

John Briceño, Prime Minister of Belize: “They have agreed now that they’re going to give us the sterile flies to be able to combat it. But what has happened why they were not giving us the flies immediately is simply because there was a bigger crisis in other parts of Central America and imagine that they felt that if they bring the flies here to stop it here and you don’t stop it here it will still still come to Belize. So they’re trying to contain it over there but now that they’re seeing that it’s starting to spread in Belize they’re making the sterile flies also available to Belize and lastly they had slowed down that program so they do not have enough flies to issue and so right now they’re trying to ramp up the production of these flies.”

The country has over thirty confirmed cases of New World screwworm.