Australian beef cattle researchers trial the use of insect-infecting bacterium Wolbachia to tackle buffalo fly, a major blood-sucking pest that costs the industry $100 million a year in treatments and lost production.

Buffalo fly is a serious animal health and production challenge, costing the northern Australian cattle industry almost $100 million a year in treatments and lost production. But control of the pest with insecticides is running into increasing resistance, plus there is a need to protect Australian beef’s ‘clean green’ reputation and so minimise the need for pesticides.

Over the past century the buffalo fly has been creeping southwards through Queensland to northern New South Wales and modelling shows that, aided by climate change, it could reach as far south as South Australia and south-west Western Australia by 2030. The blood-sucking fly causes large, painful sores and distressed animals can be distracted from feeding enough to seriously affect growth.

The only obstacle in its path is a joint university, industry and Queensland Government biological control project using the insect-infecting bacterium, Wolbachia — the same agent that has been used so successfully to suppress mosquito-transmitted dengue fever in humans.

The project is led by Dr Peter James from the Queensland Alliance for Agriculture and Food Innovation (QAAFI) at The University of Queensland, who explains the key is using the Wolbachia bacterium to break the fly’s breeding cycle. If this can be sustained it presents an opportunity to both suppress the buffalo fly population in the north and stop its spread southwards.

The buffalo fly is a formidable foe, having been introduced from Asia into the Northern Territory in the late 1830s, but the chink in its armour is it weakens in cold weather. Its populations tend to shrink into localised pockets. Dr James says if Wolbachia can be used to further stress the buffalo fly in winter, then a local eradication strategy starts to become a real possibility.

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Materials provided by University of Queensland. Note: Content may be edited for style and length.