New flesh-eating bug puts US livestock farmers on alert
The U.S. Department of Agriculture and Mexico are taking emergency actions to prevent the further spread of the New World Screwworm, which burrows into an animal's flesh with sharp mouth hooks and can be deadly to cattle and other animals. An outbreak is ongoing in Central America and southern Mexico.
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U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) officials are racing to prevent a deadly fly known as the New World Screwworm from infiltrating American livestock after cases of the pest are on the rise in southern Mexico.
The New World Screwworm (NWS) is a type of maggot known for its feeding behavior, using its sharp mouth hooks to burrow into a wound, "feeding as they go like a screw being driven into wood," according to the USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS). These pests can cause fatal wounds to livestock, birds, wildlife, pets and, in rare cases, humans.
NWS were nearly eradicated in the U.S. in 1966 using the sterile insect technique. However, since 2023, cases have been rising in Central America and Mexico, causing concern that the maggots could return to America.
Cattle are detained in the pens of the Chihuahua Regional Livestock Union , at the Jeronimo-Santa Teresa border crossing in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico on November 27, 2024. The United States stops imports of Mexican cattle due to the presence of screwworm. After a case of screwworm was identified in the town of Catazaja, in Chiapas, the United States chose to temporarily suspend imports of live Mexican cattle, according to the Government of Mexico itself. (Photo by Christian Torres/Anadolu via Getty Images) (Getty Images / Getty Images)
Last week, U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins sent a letter to Mexico's Secretary of Agriculture, Julio Antonio Berdegue Sacristan, urging the lifting of restrictions on USDA aircraft operations that were impairing the U.S. response to combat the spread of the New World Screwworm across Mexico. A few days later, the two countries reached an agreement.
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"I am happy to share Mexico has continued to partner in emergency efforts to eradicate the New World Screwworm. This pest is a devastating threat to both of our economies, and I am pleased to work together with Mexico in good faith to protect the livelihoods of our ranchers and producers who would have been hurt by this pest," Rollins said. "At USDA we are working every day to keep pests and disease from harming our agricultural industry. I thank our frontline USDA staff and their counterparts in Mexico for their work to ensure the screwworm does not harm our livestock industry."
A New World Screwworm. (USDA)
Rollins recently provided an update on the NWS outbreak when speaking to ranchers in Texas.
The APHIS also works with Panama to maintain a barrier zone to prevent the northward spread of NWS from South America. Sterile male screwworm flies are released in eastern Panama, creating a biological barrier. In February, the APHIS said it is shifting the sterile fly barrier zone efforts to Mexico.
Despite these preventive measures, screwworms have slipped into the U.S. on people or animals.
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Southwestern states have experienced recurrent NWS outbreaks of Mexican-origin, including the 1976 outbreak, during which more than 1.4 million cattle and 332,000 sheep and goats were infested, according to the APHIS.
An outbreak happened in the Florida Keys in 2016 when cases were found in Key Deer and pets. According to the USDA investigation, it’s likely NWS were present in the Keys prior to spring 2016, and the Key Deer became a suitable host, leading to more than 100 fatalities during the peak month of the outbreak in October 2016.