The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) is working with Mexico to resume cattle movement after a New World screwworm detection shut down the border last year.
Movement is expected to resume in the coming weeks once inspections are complete at quarantine facilities in Mexico.
“We have worked with Mexico to come up with a new protocol to allow us to begin importation of cattle out of Mexico,” explains Dr. Burke Healey with the USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS). “While Mexico’s situation with the screwworm is contained in the Yucatan region of southern Mexico, this policy will allow us to continue to have cattle trade even if that fly should continue to move farther north. So, we’re happy about that, and we’ve done some inspections and expect that we’ll be able to start moving cattle in the next few weeks.”
New World Screwworm has not been detected in the U.S. since the 1980s, so many livestock producers may not be familiar with it. Dr. Healey advises you to allow your vet to examine any wounds with maggots, noting that any mammal can fall victim.
Dr. Healey says that there is a need to increase sterile fly production programs to combat the pest.
“We are looking at trying to increase our fly production capacity,” Healey said. “Our main technique to control the screwworm is through a sterile fly technique where we sterilize male flies and release them so that when they mate with a female who only mates once in her life, she’ll lay sterile eggs. We are at production capacity in the existing facility in Panama, which the USDA collaborates with. So, we’re bringing those flies out of Panama into Mexico, Guatemala, and Nicaragua and trying to maintain a barrier, but we are going to need more fly production if this continues and to really get an eradication program.”
