Free Republic

Globalisation and increased movement between countries and continents means movement of agricultural pests is becoming more common. Global trade means global pests. Credit: CSIRO __________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ CSIRO scientists have confirmed the hybridisation of two of the world's major pest species, into a new and improved mega-pest. One of the pests, the cotton bollworm, is widespread in Africa, Asia and Europe and causes damage to over 100 crops, including corn, cotton, tomato and soybean. The damage and controlling the pest costs billions of dollars a year. It is extremely mobile and has developed resistance to all pesticides used against it. The other...

Flu isn't a spending priority By Seth Borenstein Knight Ridder Newspapers December 22, 2003 WASHINGTON - The flu kills 36,000 Americans a year, but the federal government spends only about half as much money on research to fight it as it spends to attack boll weevils, which are cotton pests. Other diseases that grab headlines or have advocacy groups or celebrity spokespeople - such as AIDS, Alzheimer's or Parkinson's disease - kill far fewer people than the inseparable duo of influenza and pneumonia. But the National Institutes of Health spends between eight and 100 times more money researching those more...