Texas A&M AgriLife Research scientists say early tests show an electron beam can sterilize New World screwworm flies as effectively as the radioactive source now used, and much faster, according to a university announcement released Wednesday.
The work targets the sterile insect technique, the main tool for pushing back screwworm. Sterilized male flies are released into the wild, and females that mate with them lay eggs that do not hatch. Today that sterilization is done by exposing fly pupae to cobalt-60, a radioactive isotope.
An electron beam, or eBeam, runs on ordinary commercial electricity instead, which AgriLife said removes the safety, security, cost and handling burdens that come with radioactive material.
What the tests found
Suresh Pillai, director of Texas A&M's National Center for Electron Beam Research and a professor of food science and technology, worked out the dosing. Entomology professors Aaron Tarone and Keyan Zhu-Salzman then checked whether treated flies could still reproduce and how well they survived. According to AgriLife, the results showed sterility was the only effect of the treatment.
The beam can treat pupae in seconds, compared with minutes for cobalt-60, the announcement said. Tarone credited Pillai with working out how to treat thousands of pupae precisely in that time and described the results so far as very positive, according to the release.
Pillai said the work shows the electron beam can match cobalt-60 against the screwworm, the release said.
