Screw Worm Near Texas: Vigilance Urged

Another New World screwworm case was recently detected inside the buffer zone, or within 215 miles of the Texas border in Mexico, raising further concern about its northward spread. R-CALF, United Stock Growers of America. CEO, Bill Bullard continues to praise Secretary Brooke Rollins’ decision to close the US border to Mexican livestock imports, and stresses the importance of keeping it closed to protect US livestock.

“The risk is very real to the US livestock and wildlife industries, and so we need to maintain complete vigilance and keep the border closed and make sure that we are not taking any actions that would, you know, cause allow this pest to move any further north.”

Sterile flies are currently the most effective way to prevent the spread of the New World screw worm.

"The concern that we, that everyone had, was that when the fly was being produced down in the Panama area, by the time that they transported those flies northward, in order to address where the outbreaks were occurring in Mexico, many of those flies would die during the transportation process. And so we need more localized production facilities, and having one in Texas and one in mid Mexico and Panama is going to be extremely helpful."

The screw worm is a flesh-eating pest. Livestock owners are encouraged to review biosecurity protocols.