Kangaroo Island Blowfly Facility

The Hon. R.B. MARTIN (15:17): My question is to the Minister for Primary Industries and Regional Development. Will the minister please update the council about the recent opening of the world-first sterile sheep blowfly facility on Kangaroo Island?

The Hon. C.M. SCRIVEN (Minister for Primary Industries and Regional Development, Minister for Forest Industries) (15:18): I thank the honourable member for his question and hope that all of those here are very interested in the question, which is so relevant to our agricultural industries. Any member in this place who has been fortunate enough to visit Kangaroo Island should be aware of the significant sheep industry based on the island. I understand Kangaroo Island has over 500,000 sheep, bred for wool, food and even a sheep dairy, which produces sheep milk, yoghurt and cheese.

Lucilia cuprina, commonly known as the Australian sheep blowfly, presents a significant risk to sheep on the island. Sheep blowfly can cause a condition called sheep strike, whereby a female fly locates a sheep with ideal conditions in the wool and lays her eggs. The emerging larvae cause large lesions on the sheep which often prove to be fatal.

Eradication of sheep blowfly will prevent fly strike from this species in the island's sheep, meaning there will be no need for mulesing or chemical management of sheep blowfly. This is expected to improve animal welfare and reduce management costs for local producers. It is for these reasons that the state government, in partnership with the commonwealth, has provided $3.45 million for the construction of a world-first demountable sterile blowfly breeding facility.

I am pleased to advise the facility is now open, and has started to produce sterile flies that will be released across the island in the coming weeks. I toured the completed facility a few weeks ago and met with staff who are currently running the program. Significant work has gone into ensuring their facilities are up and operational, and I thank the staff at the facility for their dedication to this project.

Sterile insect technology aims to provide an alternative solution to combat the often fatal condition and improve animal welfare while lowering these management costs. The SIT technology works by directly affecting the wild population through the release of sterile flies. When these sterile males mate with wild female flies, no fertile eggs are produced. The key to the system is to produce and release enough sterile flies to outnumber wild fertile males.

I understand the facility has the capacity to produce 50 million flies per week operating at full scale. This will allow for an island-wide release of sterile flies. During my visit to the facility I was told that the initial releases this spring will focus on an area within the Dudley Peninsula, where there is a significant sheep population. The sterile flies will be coated with a fluorescent dye; the first ones will likely be yellow and pink to ensure the staff at SARDI can distinguish sterile flies from the wild flies captured in traps.

Management costs and losses from fly strike in sheep across South Australia is estimated to be about $60 million per year. This facility is built from shipping containers, and it is hoped that once the efforts to eradicate sheep blowfly on Kangaroo Island are successful, the mobile facility can then be relocated to address sheep blowfly across other parts of our state.

Kangaroo Island is a unique environment that is free from many pests and diseases. This state government takes biosecurity extremely seriously, and is delighted to be supporting producers on the island by eradicating sheep blowfly—hopefully once and for all.