Three NC State University researchers with the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences have received funding from the U.S. Department of Agriculture to help combat the spread of the New World screwworm.

The USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service has awarded $105 million for a total of 40 projects as part of its New World Screwworm Grand Challenge initiative, which focuses on four core priorities:

• Enhance sterile NWS fly production to improve program efficiency and capacity. 
• Develop novel NWS traps and lures to modernize detection and early warning systems. 
• Advance NWS therapeutics and treatments to reduce animal health impacts and strengthen response capability. 
• Develop tools that bolster preparedness and response, including repellents, ecological modeling, wildlife surveillance, or other innovative approaches.

The New World screwworm is a flesh-eating blowfly that targets living mammals, laying eggs in open wounds that can quickly turn fatal if left untreated after the larvae hatch and begin to feed. For decades, the destructive pest was eradicated from the United States through the use of sterilized males to prevent reproduction. However, the parasite’s numbers have rebounded, and the screwworm was recently identified in Texas and New Mexico.

CALS faculty selected for USDA New World screwworm funding include:

• Maxwell Scott, a professor of entomology and expert in the genetics and lifecycle of the New World screwworm: “Next-Generation Male-Only Screwworm Strains for Enhanced Sterile Insect Technique Programs.”
• Yu Takeuchi, associate director for innovations with NC State’s Center for Integrated Pest Management: “Developing a Forecast-Informed Management Framework for Sterile Insect Technique (SIT) Prioritization to Prevent New World Screwworm Establishment.”
• Loganathan Ponnusamy, principal research scholar who specializes in arthropod-microbe interactions, will serve as a co-principal investigator with Luis Escobar, an associate professor at Virginia Tech: “Next-Generation Technologies for New World Screwworm Preparedness: Advanced Forecasting, Precision Surveillance, and Social Response.”

In addition to USDA funding, Scott has also received a Rapid Outcomes from Agricultural Research grant from the Foundation for Food & Agriculture Research (FFAR), in collaboration with the biotechnology company Agragene.

Scott, whose work has helped develop genetics-based solutions to control screwworm through the production of only sterile males, is focusing his new research on several approaches to produce fit sterile males, including CRISPR-based methods.

“In the new FFAR project, we are using CRISPR gene-editing technologies to produce males that are already sterile and provide a fitness benefit,” Scott says. “The goal is to develop an alternative way to produce competitive sterile males without the cost and liabilities of gamma irradiation.”

Takeuchi’s project involves the development of a framework called SWIFT (Screwworm Integrated Forecasting Technology) that integrates suitability modeling, detection probability and dispersal potential. The framework will help improve national and regional capacity for early detection, rapid response and long-term management of screwworm. Ponnusamy’s research aims to create a precision surveillance system for trapping New World screwworm flies using microbial attractants. Promising formulations of the lures will be deployed at agricultural sites in Guatemala to evaluate their effectiveness.

“The spread of screwworms into the United States emphasizes the urgent need for effective tools that monitor their movement, forecast their spread and support rapid action to protect agriculture across North America,” Takeuchi says.

This post was originally published in College of Agriculture and Life Sciences News.