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Cactoblastis cactorum has become a serious threat to the high diversity of Opuntia (cactus pear) species throughout the world, both native and cultivated. These plants have a valuable role in subsistence and commercial agriculture, in maintaining the ecological balance of unique ecosystems, and in soil conservation and combating desertification. Increasing areas in opuntia cultivation and reliance on food and income from products means that invasion by C. cactorum has the potential to impact large regions and thousands of subsistence farmers in Central and South America, the Mediterranean, North Africa and in other countries. The magnitude of impact on biodiversity and ecosystems, timing and scale of the likely response needed, requires immediate action.
The IAEA is currently supporting programmes to control numerous pests using the Sterile Insect Technique (SIT) including the screwworm fly, Cochliomyia hominivorax, tsetse flies, the Mediterranean fruit fly, Ceratitis capitata and various other fruit fly pests. However, lepidopterans (moths) generally are more expensive to rear and are more radio-resistant. As a consequence, the larger dose of radiation required to completely sterilize moths reduces the competitiveness and performance of SIT in the field. One approach to reduce the negative effects of radio-resistance in Lepidoptera has been the use of inherited or F1 sterility, which involves the mass rearing and release of genetically, altered insects. Nuclear technology has not only a comparative advantage in sterilizing mass reared insects using a specific dose of gamma radiation emitted by radioisotopes (Cobalt 60 or Caesium 137), but is at present the only technology available for this purpose.
