IT beats a rolled up newspaper: British scientists have developed a new breed of sterile bugs that could slash insect numbers without the need for costly and environmentally damaging pesticides.

　　Dr Luke Alphey and colleagues at Oxford University said Wednesday they had established a spin-out company, Oxitec, to commercialize the process and were already discussing control of cotton pests with the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

　　Sterilization itself is not new. It has been used to control cattle screwworm in North America and Libya, and to control tsetse flies on the Tanzanian island of Zanzibar.

　　But the standard method of sterilizing males using radiation has serious drawbacks because it often damages the insects which reduces their effectiveness.

　　To get round the problem, the Oxford scientists have genetically modified their bugs, altering the creatures’ metabolism so that they are dependent on a dietary supplement used in the rearing program.

　　“Our technique improves on the current approach as the released insects will be sterile but not damaged by the treatment and so can compete effectively with wild insects,” Alphey said.

　　The Oxitec insects, when released, mate with their natural pest counterparts and transfer their lethal gene before they themselves die, thereby controlling the population.

　　Cheap and non-toxic pest control could be a boon for both livestock and arable farmers, as well as improving human health in developing countries.

　　The United Nations earlier this year lent its support to an ambitious campaign to wipe out the deadly tsetse fly from nearly 10 million square kilometers of sub-Saharan Africa, by releasing millions of irradiated male insects.

　　The biting tsetse fly transmits a deadly parasite, trypanosome, which attacks the blood and nervous system of its victims, causing “nagana” in livestock and “sleeping sickness” in humans.

　　(SD-Agencies)