A parasite eradicated for nearly 60 years is now a threat again. The New World screwworm has resurfaced in animals and even some humans in Mexico within the last year, prompting concerns about it spreading across the border to Texas. "It's like something out of a horror movie, it's a flesh-eating maggot," says Sid Miller, Texas Agriculture Commissioner. "It affects any mammals, but mainly livestock and wildlife is what we're concerned with."
"This thing is hard to control, and we don't need that," he continues. "Because in Texas, it's threatening a $30 billion livestock industry, plus our wildlife industry."
The U.S. Department of Agriculture has already taken steps to prevent the screwworm from reaching America, including restricting the importation of cattle and wildlife from south of the border. But Miller's office is unveiling a new strategy to further protect Texas animals. His plan includes a chemical bait that attracts and kills the larvae, as well as Ivermectin feed additives and a cattle vaccine.
Miller is confident these tools will help prevent and eradicate the screwworm much faster and more efficiently than the sterile flies used to wipe it out in the 1960s. "We've got it bottled up in southern Mexico right now, which is a whole lot easier to control than letting it get all over the southern United States and trying to wipe it out," he says. "So we've got it cornered, and that's why I want to get in there as rapidly as possible and get this fly bait out."
"I think then we can stop it there and push it back down into Central America."