Medfly

The Mediterranean fruit fly (Ceratitis capitata), or medfly, is one of the world’s most destructive agricultural pests.

The female medfly injects her eggs into ripening fruit so that the larvae can feed on the soft pulp. Bacteria and fungi enter through the hole and cause the fruit to rot. The medfly has spread to almost all tropical and subtropical areas of the world and infests over 200 plant types.

 Oxitec Medfly (OX3864A)

OX3864A is a female-specific RIDL strain. It enables separation of the sexes to allow a 100% male release by removal of the supplement from the diet of the final release generation. In addition to genetic sexing the strain may also be used without irradiation for population suppression.

Status and performance evaluation

Contained trials of the Oxitec Medfly have shown excellent performance characteristics and it is now ready for open field trials. OX3864A has been tested at Oxitec for conditional lethality, marker performance and mating competitiveness and has performed well. Our earlier prototype, OX3864A contained a green fluorescent marker and was evaluated for mating competitiveness and mass-rearing performance by the IAEA/FAO entomology lab in Seibersdorf, Austria, and by the USDA/Moscamed in Guatemala.