A world-first facility has opened on South Australia’s Kangaroo Island to try and eradicate a condition that costs the Australian sheep industry almost $300 million a year.
The Sterile Insect Technique (SIT) facility will breed and release millions of sterile sheep blowflies, with the goal of fully eradicating sheep flystrike from the island.
The facility can then be replicated elsewhere around Australia.
Flystrike occurs when Australian blowflies bite the skin and lay eggs in the wool around a sheep’s backside, the eggs hatch, and the resulting larvae feed off the irritated skin.
Sheep often suffer pain and sometimes death.
Helen Brodie is the facility manager at the Kangaroo Island Sheep Blowfly SIT. (Supplied: Roshni Harding)
Primary Industries Minister Clare Scriven said the new facility would produce up to 50 million sterile flies every week when fully operational.
“It’s not a full capacity yet, but it will be releasing the first flies this month,” she said.
“These are sterile male [flies] and when they mate with the females, there are no eggs produced and so it’s a way of really interacting with the wild flies to be able to reduce and hopefully eliminate sheep blow fly from Kangaroo Island.”
Pests costing sheep industry
Sterile flies have been bred and released previously to eradicate other pests, such as fruit fly.
The flystrike facility — made out of shipping containers — is unique because it can be relocated to other areas.
The SIT facility is made out of shipping containers and can be relocated to the mainland. (Supplied: Roshni Harding)
“That’s something that hasn’t occurred before and really does present a lot of potential benefits for the rest of our state as well,” Ms Scriven said.
“A cost-benefit analysis has shown that if we were to eradicate sheep blowfly on [Kangaroo Island], producers could save up to $88 million over 25 years, and it’s also going to improve animal well-being.”
Facility manager Helen Brodie, from the South Australian Research and Development Institute (SARDI), said the fly species being bred was responsible for starting around 90 per cent of fly strike cases.
The facility is breeding sterile flies from the species responsible for most of Australia’s sheep flystrike cases. (Supplied: Roshni Harding)
The sterile flies will be released in their pupal stage and testing has occurred in recent months to perfect the release method from an aircraft.
“We’re kind of throwing them out of the plane in their sleeping bags and hoping that they land well and emerge happily,” Ms Brodie said.
“We’re hoping that by releasing them in their pupal cases, they’re a little bit more resilient and it also saves us a fair bit of labour and time.
“We should release them, and then the very next day, they emerge from their cases and off they go.”
Helen Brodie says the project will be a test to see if eradicating flystrike is possible through the use of sterile flies. (Supplied: PIRSA)
A potential game changer
Ms Brodie said it would not be possible to eradicate flystrike on the mainland, but the relocatable station would be a “significant tool” for reducing its occurrence.
Kangaroo Island sheep farmer and chair of AgKI Jamie Heinrich agreed it could be a game changer for the sheep industry, which made up a large part of the island’s economy.
“This particular blowfly is the really bad one that can affect sheep really quickly and be bad for animal welfare, and also cause a lot of time and effort in prevention and treatment,” Mr Heinrich said.
“It’s going to be great for farmers on the island if it’s successful.”
