As of June 5, New World screwworm (NWS) had yet to make an appearance in the U.S., though animal health officials and livestock producers in border states and throughout the South remain on high alert. The USDA on May 11 closed all ports of entry between Mexico and the U.S. to imports of live cattle, horses and bison in an effort to slow the spread of the pest. The department said this live animal import ban will remain in place on a month-to-month basis “until a significant window of containment is achieved.”
“It is my duty to take all steps within my control to protect the livestock industry in the United States from this devastating pest,” U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins said. “The protection of our animals and safety of our nation’s food supply is a national security issue of the utmost importance. Once we see increased surveillance and eradication efforts, and the positive results of those actions, we remain committed to opening the border for livestock trade. This is not about politics or punishment of Mexico; rather, it is about food and animal safety.”
In late May, reports circulated on the internet that NWS had been confirmed in livestock in Missouri. However, the USDA and Missouri Department of Agriculture were quick to set the record straight, calling the reports “unfounded rumors” and requesting any outlets claiming NWS’s presence in the country remove the erroneous reports.
Citing a sell-off of live cattle futures on May 27 that it says was triggered by these false reports, R-CALF USA has urged the Commodity Futures Trading Commission to investigate the source of the reports. The organization said that such a false report could have been willfully issued with the intention to influence cattle markets and threaten the integrity of the U.S. cattle industry. Other experts have questioned the validity of the concern over market manipulation, noting the markets’ almost immediate recovery after the USDA debunked the reports of NWS in Missouri.
On May 27, Rollins announced a partnership with Mexico’s Secretariat of Agriculture and Rural Development (USDA’s Mexican equivalent) to invest $21 million to renovate a fruit fly production facility in Metapa, Mexico. When operational, the facility will produce 60 to 100 million sterile NWS flies weekly. Injecting sterile male flies into the population has to date proven to be the most effective form of NWS control. U.S.-supported sterile insect raising and dispersal in Mexico and Central America have been operating at full production capacity for months, with flights releasing about 100 million sterile flies a week. All flies currently used are raised in a cooperative U.S.-Panama facility in Panama. However, the USDA has stated that sterile fly production has fallen short of what is necessary to appropriately control the parasite; once functional, the Metapa facility would allow the USDA to double its sterile insect production and dispersal.
“The New World screwworm cannot be eliminated with half-hearted efforts. Actual eradication requires the strategic release of millions of sterile flies,” Texas Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller said in a statement. “This collaborative effort … will expand North American sterile fly production, marking a crucial step forward. … This reinforces our defenses and strengthens our international partnership. Secretary Rollins recognizes the seriousness of this threat and is utilizing appropriate tools with necessary urgency to protect American agriculture.”
The USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) continues to collaborate with its counterparts in Mexico. A USDA report said these efforts are making strong progress toward enhancing NWS surveillance in Mexico, addressing government red tape that could impair their efforts and putting in place appropriate animal movement controls to prevent further NWS spread as much as possible.
