Proposed by a pair of scientists, Edward F. Knipling and Raymond C. Bushland, and rapidly adopted by the United States Department of Agriculture, the technique centers on a unique reproductive handicap that prevents female hominivorax flies from reproducing more than once in their life-spans.
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This eradication was declared the most efficient and successful international animal health program in the history of the United Nations Organisation.
There are five species of Cochliomyia but only one species of screw-worm fly in the genus; there is also a single Old World species in a different genus (Chrysomya bezziana).