THE International Atomic Energy Agency has plans to rid Africa of the tsetse fly by releasing millions of male flies sterilised with gamma radiation (快猫短视频, 23 February, p 17). It certainly looks like an attractive idea, as the tsetse fly causes even more problems in Africa than AIDS. But I asked Hilary Benn, the junior international development minister, what he thought.
Benn replied that the release of sterile insects is part of the important Pan African Tsetse and Trypanosomiasis Eradication Campaign (PATTEC). However, the Department for International Development seriously doubts if existing technologies can eradicate tsetse flies from some 9 million square kilometres of Africa. It also has reservations about the economic and social benefits claimed for PATTEC. If this major initiative fails it could undermine other efforts to control trypanosomiasis for many years.
Benn added that other technologies can already remove tsetse flies from specific environments. But we have yet to find a cost-effective, environmentally sound method of permanently removing them on a continental scale. Community-based tsetse targeting and trapping is effective in controlling local fly populations, but it doesn鈥檛 work for large areas. Moreover, some donors and governments consider widespread use of potent insecticides to be too environmentally controversial. These attempts have frequently been undermined by flies reinvading from nearby areas. Certainly, further discussion is required on the scientific and economic theory underlying the sterile-insect technique before it can be used as the basis of a $20 billion pan-continental tsetse eradication programme, said the minister.
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PARLIAMENT thought it had an answer to the ravages of ragwort when it passed the Weeds Act in 1959. Ragwort is a recalcitrant weed that poisons horses, killing 500 a year worldwide. In Britain, it grows almost anywhere but particularly on verges, embankments and wastelands. The 1959 act gave the Minister of Agriculture the power to order any landowners with ragwort on their land to stop it from spreading. So why does the weed continue to invade virtually every pasture and meadow more than 40 years later, asked Richard Younger-Ross, MP for Teignbridge, in a recent adjournment debate. Was the new Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) likely to prove any more effective in this respect than the old Ministry of Agriculture Fisheries and Food? In particular, would DEFRA be backing any new research into controlling the weed?
Elliot Morley, the junior minister for environment, food and rural affairs, agreed that ragwort is still very hard to deal with. DEFRA finds it a costly and time-consuming problem, he said. In the past year, the foot and mouth epidemic made it difficult for DEFRA to give ragwort its full attention. However the department continues to support bodies such as the National Equine Welfare Council in its work against ragwort, and has commissioned research by the Agricultural Development Advisory Service.
Unfortunately, said Morley, DEFRA does not have the resources to investigate every complaint about ragwort on every piece of land. He said the department will continue to work with interested organisations on research and development, and will do what it can, with the help of landowners and livestock owners, to minimise the risk.
This is an issue that DEFRA, the Countryside Commission and the farming and equestrian communities all take most seriously. However, they still really need a herbicide that can wipe out the weed as soon as it arrives.