Azerbaijan, Baku, July 10/ Trend N. Umid/
A Blowfly plague has killed 45 of the 70 rare Iranian yellow deer (Dama mesopotamica) in only a few weeks near the Karkheh Dam in the Khuzestan province of Iran, Mehr News Agency reported.
These deers are included on the red list of threatened species of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).
According to the Iranian officials just 70 of these deer were living in the Karkheh region, when 45 were killed in a few weeks by myiasis decease.
Flies lays eggs on the deer's body, then the eggs hatch after 12 hours and millions of larvae in the deer's body kill it in just three days. These flies proliferate massively within a few days.
According to the local officials, the danger of extinction is not serious, while head of Iran Department of Environment said on July 8 that myiasis cannot be controlled.
A drought in some sections of the Hurolazim Lagoon has been suggested as the main reason of the flies striking attacking the deer, Ahmad Ali Keykha official of Iran Department of Environment said.
Petroleum industry projects in the region and a decreasing water flow into the lagoon reportedly caused the drought at Hurolazim.