Legal Insurrection has been following the struggle to control the New World Screwworm (Cochliomyia hominivorax), a flesh-eating parasitic fly whose larvae infest open wounds of warm-blooded animals, including livestock, wildlife, pets, and occasionally humans, causing severe tissue damage and often death if left untreated. The pest appears to be infesting Mexico and heading north.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) plans on using high-tech and sterile flies to contain and control the pests. Unfortunately, the pests were recently infecting a calf in South Texas.
Now, there are four more U.S. livestock infestations to report. Another calf was diagnosed in South Texas, in addition to three other animals.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture announced three new cases of New World screwworm, including the first cases in dogs and goats, on Monday, bringing the nation’s total case count to five. It also pledged to ramp up and expedite mitigation efforts for screwworm, a parasitic fly that the nation declared eradicated in the 1960s.At a news briefing on Monday, federal and Texas state officials said that they were using technology driven by artificial intelligence to monitor screwworm populations, training ranchers to recognize infections in their livestock and expanding the number of facilities that produce and disperse sterile flies, which are the primary tool for managing screwworm.Officials are also considering whether to grant an emergency authorization of a new, genetically engineered strain of flies that could make sterile fly production faster and more efficient….The three new cases were identified in a calf in La Salle County, Texas; a goat in Gillespie County, Texas; and a dog in Lea County, N.M. It is not clear whether the dog acquired the parasite in the United States; although officials initially indicated that the dog might have recently been in Mexico, they later said its travel history was unknown.
Sterlie flies are already in the process of being released.
US Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins told reporters on Thursday that since the discovery of the infected calf, officials have released four million sterile flies by ground, in addition to another four million that they have been releasing by plane on a weekly basis since February.”There is no reason to believe that this incursion will result in any sort of establishment of the pests,” said Rollins.
The genetic engineering innovation being touted would allow the production of only sterile male flies.
“Basically we’ve been losing half of the production at every facility because what we need are sterile male flies, but of course with nature, half of what you get are female flies, and those to this particular enterprise are useless,” he explains. “Thanks to our agricultural research service, we now have the ability to pump out 100% sterile male flies only, no wastage. That has the effect of doubling production without any change in the available facilities.“He adds, “We expect to be able, once EPA approves that innovation is safe later this year, to have all those facilities, including the one under construction at Moore Air Base, pumping out 100% sterile male flies, which will make our ability to push this pest back further south where it belongs to take root and begin to have great effect. Not just to hold it, but to push it further south.”Hoskins summarizes, “All of those things are in motion, all things happening concurrently, and all those will be critical in modernizing our toolbox to take the fight to the screwworm.”
Meanwhile, tensions between state and federal officials are increasing as the pests start to spread. Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins described Texas Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller as “unserious” following his criticism of the USDA’s handling of the escalating threat posed by the flesh-eating New World screwworm.
At a Monday news conference in Texas on the USDA’s response, Rollins was asked about Miller’s recent assertion that ranchers would not report a case on their farms over fear that the government would impose a quarantine.“That is a very unserious comment, from perhaps an unserious ag commissioner with just a few months left,” she said of Miller. “It is also a very dangerous suggestion.”The rift between Rollins and Miller effectively pits the top agricultural leaders in the country and in the state currently affected by the outbreak against each other. And it comes as the Trump administration races to contain the screwworm, which threatens to thin out an already weak cattle herd and further raise beef prices.
With multiple cases now confirmed and the geographic risk expanding, rapid, coordinated deployment of every available tool will be critical to preventing establishment and pushing the screwworm threat back across the border, and perhaps beating the infestation back even farther.
The combination of scaled sterile insect technique programs, AI-driven surveillance, and accelerated regulatory approvals offers a solid path to containment, but success will depend on speed, interagency alignment, and cooperation by farmers and ranchers.
Given the historical success of eradication efforts, there is strong reason for cautious optimism that this outbreak can be contained before it becomes entrenched in U.S. livestock populations — and starts impacting my supply of tasty steaks.
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