Fort Worth, Texas (RFD News) — New World screwworm remains a top concern for the U.S. cattle industry as producers and animal health officials work to limit its impact.
During a recent RFD-TV Town Hall, National Cattlemen’s Beef Association Senior Vice President of Government Affairs Ethan Lane said the industry has spent months preparing for the pest’s arrival and slowing its movement northward.
“We were all under the impression that by August of last year, New World screwworm would be here in the United States. Through Herculean efforts by the Department of Agriculture, working with the Mexican government, getting those flies that were generating right now down in Panama onto that leading edge of the incursion over the last year and a half, slowing that move northward while producers here in Texas, the Texas and Southwestern Cattle Raisers Association, Texas Cattle Feeders, Texas Farm Bureau, all through that Texas Screwworm Coalition, use that knowledge from fighting this the last time, working with USDA.”
Lane said a number of resources are now available to help producers respond to the threat.
“We have tools now. We have resources. We have screwworm production facilities coming online. We have emergency use authorizations for drugs, for producers to use in combating this. We have education going out into the field. We have all of those tools coming to bear.”
Industry leaders say those efforts are aimed at limiting the pest’s impact while helping producers respond quickly to new cases.
