A fight over how to sterilize screwworm flies - and who should be in charge of cranking them out - spilled into public view at the Texas Capitol on Thursday, as industry boosters promised quick scale ups while federal scientists tapped the brakes. Lawmakers were hit with competing claims about production timelines, regulatory approvals and whether X-ray sterilization can safely take over from older gamma-irradiation methods.
Testifying before a House Agriculture Committee hearing chaired by state Rep. Ryan Guillen, Nathan Moses-Gonzales, CEO of M3 Agriculture Technologies, said his company’s “novofly” process could ramp up in a hurry. “I could produce 100 million sterile flies per week in a year,” Moses-Gonzales told lawmakers, adding that M3 has asked Texas for roughly $4 million to partner with the University of Veracruz, as reported by KXAN Austin.
Federal officials countered that mass releases of sterile flies are still the most effective weapon in the toolbox, but they stressed that new technologies need hard data before they hit the field. In an update for partners, USDA APHIS said it is evaluating e-beam and X-ray sterilization alongside other innovations and will only adopt methods backed by rigorous science.
Supply and the build-out
Right now, the United States leans heavily on a production center in Panama that turns out about 100 million sterile flies per week, and officials say upgrades in Mexico could add tens of millions more later this summer. Washington has also broken ground on a domestic plant at Moore Air Base, a Mortenson-built project the Army pegs at roughly $610 million that is expected to ultimately produce about 300 million sterile flies per week, according to reporting from DTN, Agriculture.com and the U.S. Army.
Why the radiation choice matters
Technical experts note that the biological effect of sterilization depends on the radiation source, the dose and the way insects are processed, so results from one species do not automatically translate to another. Peer-reviewed studies and technical reviews show that X-rays can match gamma irradiation in some SIT (sterile insect technique) programs, but outcomes vary by species and protocol, which is why researchers stress careful lab validation and field trials before any large-scale switch (PubMed Central).
Back in Austin, USDA leaders warned lawmakers that jumping to an unvalidated sterilization method could risk releasing fertile flies into the environment. M3 took the opposite view, arguing that a private “novofly” rollout could speed up capacity if Mexican regulators sign off. The company told lawmakers the novel product could produce roughly 9 million novoflies per week by the end of July if approved and then climb toward much larger weekly output by year’s end, with both the agency’s warnings and the company’s promises laid out at the hearing, as reported by KXAN Austin.
What happens next hangs on Mexican regulatory approvals, federal testing and how lawmakers in Austin decide to spend state dollars. With confirmed detections in the region and a still-limited supply of sterile flies, the debate over X-ray versus gamma sterilization is not just academic, and it could determine how quickly ranchers, pets and wildlife get protection, as noted in coverage by The Associated Press.
