For the capture assay to be cost effective, it should be competitive with the cost of the conventional silica adsorption assay. The two assays require roughly the same amount of technical time, so labor costs may be assumed to be equivalent per sample for the two assays. However, because it will be possible to increase the size of the pools 2-4 fold when using the capture assay, a reduction in labor costs of between 50% and 75% would be realized when costs are considered on a per-fly-tested basis. Similarly, the per-sample cost of carrying out the conventional assay is roughly $2.22 per pool, while the cost of the magnetic bead assay is $3.81 per pool. However, because the magnetic bead permits more flies to be tested per pool, cost savings in reagents are realized when the costs are amortized on a per fly basis (Table 3) .