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From: cl@lgc.com (Cameron Laird)
Newsgroups: sci.bio
Subject: Re: Mutant flies
Message-ID: <1991May28.203053.16437@lgc.com>
Date: 28 May 91 20:30:53 GMT
References: <19490@csli.Stanford.EDU> <1991May27.020638.27148@imagen.com>
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In article <1991May27.020638.27148@imagen.com> isaak@imagen.com (mark isaak) writes:
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>The flies are not new.  What's new is that they have now been
>accidentally imported to Africa (Lybia, if I remember right),
>where they threaten humans, livestock, and native mammals alike.
>That's probably the focus of the international effort you heard
>about.
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There're political problems here, to accompany the
biologic ones:
1.  this is the first time screwworm flies
    have been observed in Africa;
2.  they could be both very destructive and
    *very* expensive to control in Africa,
    given various social and ecologic
    realities;
3.  the technologies developed in the eradi-
    cation in North America can be expected
    to be quite effective in wiping out the
    small infestation in Libya; however,
4.  the US classifies Libya as an outlaw
    country, which is not to be helped (ap-
    proximately).
It'll be interesting to learn how this one turns
out.
--

Cameron Laird				+1 713-579-4613
cl@lgc.com (cl%lgc.com@uunet.uu.net)	+1 713-996-8546