New World Screwworm Remains Top-of-Mind Concern for Cattle Industry

While not a new report, the latest report shows the New World Screwworm has been detected just 370 miles from the US border. R-CALF United Stock Growers of America, CEO Bill Bullard, has an update on the growing concern for the cattle industry.

“The pest has exceeded the boundary that we had kept for many, many years in Panama. And the latter part of 2022 Panama declared an emergency because they continue to detect far more screw worms than they had in in the more recent past, and that screw worm has been making its way northward.”

Reports suggest the New World Screwworm spread north may be linked to illegal cattle trafficking. Bullard says the best defenses are sterile fly production and keeping the border closed.

“And we believe we have the ability to control the New World screw worm, but we're behind the eight ball. We don't have enough sterile flies to release to be an effective preventive step in preventing that fly from continuing to move northward. So we hope that the United States can continue to help Mexico control the pest that the pest has to be pushed, not just out of Mexico. It has to be pushed back down through Central America, below Panama, in order for us to breathe a sigh of relief.”

R-Calf USA CEO, Bill Bullard.