The USDA has poured $165 million into fighting the parasite.
CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — Mexico cattle imports have been halted after the discovery of the New World screwworm in an infected cow.
The parasitic fly lays about 500 eggs in any exposed flesh of warm-blooded animals, and is capable of killing an animal after eating its flesh.
Many ranchers still remember back in the 1960s when the United States Department of Agriculture set up a huge program to eradicate the screwworm. Ag scientist worked around the clock to figure out that dropping sterile flies into the environment would kill the flies.
This basically eradicated the pest in North America, but not in South America.
That’s why the federal government has halted cattle imports from Mexico and poured $165 million into fighting the parasite.
“We’ve got to keep an eye out, any animal that has wounds like freshly castrated cattle and any animal that may have a pre-existing wound,” veterinarian Tobin Pennington said. “We look for the maggots to make sure they’re not showing any symptoms of restlessness and discomfort from that area.”
Pennington specializes in treating livestock and regularly inspects animals at cattle auctions.
He said he hasn’t heard of the screwworm north of the border.
Rancher Rodney Mulin told 3NEWS he remembers growing up and having to treat cattle that had screwworms.
“You had to catch every baby calf and doctor it because it would get screwworms in its naval because of the umbilical cord, and so you would have to capture every calf and doctor it pretty much or they would die from the screwworms,” he said.
State Ag Commissioner Sid Miller told 3NEWS he believes the federal government is overreacting to the danger which is 1,100 miles from our border. He says the government spending $165 million for a solution is wrong because the solution is to drop more sterile flies. It worked in the 1960s and it will work now.