Male-only screwworm strains paper published in BMC Biology

Our paper on the development and evaluation of transgenic strains of the New World screwworm that carry a conditional female lethal gene has been published in BMC Biology. Over a 50 year period, the SIT was used to eradicate screwworm from North and Central America. SIT is more efficient if only sterile males are released but until now this has not been possible. The modified strains produce only males on diet that does not contain tetracycline. The strains are comparable to the current mass reared strain for several characteristics that influence production. Further the transgenic males were competitive with the wild type strain for mating with females. The transgenic strains could potentially lead to significant savings for the ongoing and any future SIT program.