Description

SAS has produced a set of 2 colourful wall posters featuring screwworms.

A set of two posters on screwworms has been produced in collaboration with the Joint FAO/IAEA Programme – Nuclear Techniques in Food and Agriculture in order to increase awareness of these very important pests. It is targeted at veterinary technicians and quarantine officials. The posters cover the Old World and New World screwworms, Chrysomia bezziana and Cochliomyia hominivorax, which are flies belonging in the family Calliphoridae.

The posters cover the nature of the problems caused by screwworms, monitoring methods, identification of adults and larvae and control methods. The sterile insect release method remains one of the most important tools for eradication of screwworm and maintenance of screwworm free areas.

Screwworms, unlike most fly larvae found in wounds of warm-blooded animals, feed on living tissues and can cause the rapid death of an infested animal or human if untreated.