The bichera fly is a parasite that in Uruguay generates losses of about 40 million dollars in the livestock sector and presents more than 1,000 cases per year in humans.
Article continues below
The Ministry of Livestock established a plan to eradicate this plague in four years, after beginning the dispersion of the already sterilized fly, in September 2023. "It is a serious parasitosis," said Minister Fernando Mattos.
The announcements were made this Monday 4, at the headquarters of the Ministry of Livestock, Agriculture and Fisheries (MGAP), after Mattos' official mission to the Republic of Panama, in June, where he participated in activities carried out jointly by the Government of that country and the United States Department of Agriculture.
Also participating in the conference were the vice president of the Agricultural Plan Institute (IPA), Francisco Donagaray; the representative of the National Rural Development Commission (CNFR), Alejandro Henry, and the representative of the Federated Agrarian Cooperatives (CAF), Alberto Bozzo.
Minister Mattos visited the plant of the Panama-United States Commission for the Eradication and Prevention of the Cattle Screwworm (Copeg), where sterile flies are produced and controls are carried out to prevent a reintroduction of the parasite in the sanitized areas.
The campaign began in the United States and continued through Mexico and all the countries of Central America, culminating in Panama. The parasite was eradicated in nine countries and almost two continents.
In September 2023, GanaderÃa will try to disperse 25 million flies per week throughout the national territory in the previously defined dispersion zones, in order to cover some 1,000 kilometers of the border with Brazil and Argentina, explained Mattos.
For the hierarch, the objective is to advance with the producers' unions, which will pay for the program, for which reason the first year's financing was arranged in the Rendering of Accounts, through the resources that the prevalent disease fund will transfer.
The minister stressed that the eradication of the parasite in Uruguay will take place in about four years from the dispersion of the fly, to then generate a biological containment barrier that will avoid the risk of reintroduction from cross-border endemic areas. ■