U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins says a single confirmed case of New World screwworm is contained, as state and federal officials move quickly to quarantine the area.
During a Thursday press call, Rollins reported that the single screwworm case was confirmed in a three-week-old beef calf on Wednesday in La Pryor, south of Uvalde. The U.S. Department of Agriculture immediately created a unified incident command team with the Texas Animal Health Commission and deployed the USDA Animal and Plant Health and Inspection Service to the area.
A 20-kilometer control zone was established around the detection site, and an expedited, targeted release of 4 million sterile New World screwworm flies a week is planned for the immediate area.
Texas State Veterinarian Dr. Lewis Dinges told the press that his staff have reported that the infested calf is improving and they have not found any other infested animals on the premises. There has also been no recent movement of animals onto or off the premises.
Dinges encouraged Texans to monitor their animals as often as possible and keep a close eye on any open wounds.
A quarantine has been issued on all warm-blooded animals within the control zone.
“Animals will still be able to move,” said Dinges. “We just need to make sure that they are moving safely and not moving the screwworm with it.”
Rollins highlighted that there is no reason that this case will result in “any sort of establishment of the pest” if producers and companion animal owners follow the movement guidelines and restrictions and do not move animals near the zone without proper treatment or inspection.
“These flies do not fly to new areas on their own, they are moving, and if they move, it’s because they’re moving with the animals,” said Rollins. “So that’s a really, really important piece of this as well, for us to contain the pest in the limited area we’re talking about, without disrupting too much commerce and too much of our livestock producers’ ability to make a living.”
Both Rollins and Dinges emphasized that the screwworm is not a food safety issue.
“The food supply is not compromised at all,” said Rollins. “This is not a disease, it is not a virus, it is simply an insect that lands in a wound and lays eggs that like to eat the flesh around the wound.”
There are currently 12 products available to treat screwworm for multiple species.
As of publication there have been no additional cases of screwworm confirmed within the U.S.
The USDA has started a new X account to provide up-to-date information on the screwworm.
