Flies Impacting Livestock, Poultry and Food Safety

NON-TECHNICAL SUMMARY: Muscoid flies are among the most important pests in livestock and poultry production systems. Successful completion of this project will provide a better understanding of the interactions between livestock production systems and the life cycles of pestiferous flies. Exploitation of these interactions will provide economically feasible and environmentally friendly technology for reducing the impact of flies on livestock production and public health.

<p>

APPROACH: Historical weather and first date of stable flies appearance on traps will be evaluated to estimate when northerly dispersal of stable flies is most likely to occur. Alsynite traps will be deployed along the putative northeasterly dispersal routes. Correlation of trap collections with weather parameters will be assessed. The proportion of 3x and 5x traps in each of the study areas will be compared to the passage of frontal systems as confirmed by changes in barometric pressure, temperature and wind direction. Standardized house fly monitoring tools will be tested. Attempts will be made to characterize nuisance (or treatment) thresholds that can be used to assist animal facility managers to develop appropriate control programs. Relative house fly abundance will be measured during the early and peak periods of the house fly season. Three house fly monitoring systems will be simultaneously utilized to evaluate their ability to detect early increases in house fly abundance while still providing manageable information during periods of peak fly abundance. Upon completion and verification of climatically driven population models for stable flies, the effects of area wide habitat modification on populations will be evaluated. Treatments will include removal and composting of hay feeding wastes, soil incorporation of wastes and other technologies such as chemical and biological treatments as they become available. Control and economic impact of stable fly adults. Treated targets (TTs) will be evaluated on 2-4 small farms with 150 or fewer animals. TTs will be deployed for 2-3 months once the action threshold of 100-300 stable flies / Alsynite trap / day is reached. Alsynite traps and leg counts will be used to evaluate the effects of TTs on stable fly populations. Upon completion of the study, targets will be bioassayed to determine residual toxicity with a standard stable fly strain. <p>Biological control with pteromalid parasitoids. Studies are being planned in New York to determine if a combined release of closely related, but biologically varied parasitoid species will complement or synergize each other which will then enable us to develop recommendations for dairy producers as to which species of parasitoid or combination of parasitoids to purchase for cost effective fly biological control. Several novel insecticides will be used separately and in combination in broiler-breeder, turkey and dairy farms during the fly season to determine their efficacy in adult house fly management. Flies will be collected and tested for resistance both at the beginning and at the end of the fly season to determine if resistance is developing to these insecticides. If resistance appears, rotation with other insecticides will be implemented in an attempt to minimize the development of resistance. A nationwide survey of insecticide resistance in house flies, using both bioassays and genotyping of the alleles involved in insecticide resistance will be conducted. We anticipate evaluating one class of insecticides each year starting with pyrethroids (permethrin and cyfluthrin).