SANAA, 19 March 2009 (IRIN) - The Yemen Agriculture Ministry's Desert Locust Control Centre (DLCC) says there has been a new locust outbreak in the southern governorate of Shabwa and pest control teams are on standby.

DLCC Director-General Abdu Farei al-Rumaih said a field team discovered on 18 March that immature locusts were spreading over a 40-hectare area in Radom District, Shabwa Governorate.

"We are coordinating with the local councils in Shabwa to facilitate fighting the locusts. The operation will start next week," he told IRIN, adding that the teams would fumigate infested areas for two weeks.

According to him, the field team surveyed the area and found two locust clusters covering 3-5 hectares within the infested area, with their densities estimated at 100 locusts per square metre. In the rest of the area, 2-5 immature locusts were found per square metre.

"At this stage, the locusts do not pose a threat as they are in winter breeding areas. The potential threat would start if they moved to summer breeding areas in the desert. This will happen if they are not well controlled," he said.

The current groups of locusts are living in sand dunes near the coast and have not migrated from any neighbouring countries. "They appeared after heavy rains in January," he said.

The DLCC recently carried out a field survey to identify locust infestations in the coastal areas bordering Oman and Saudi Arabia. In 2007 several parts of Yemen were invaded by locusts from the Horn of Africa.

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