New Mexico officials called on federal officials to do more to protect the state’s livestock and wildlife in the wake of the first confirmed case of a parasitic fly in neighboring Texas Wednesday — the first incursion of New World screwworm in the U.S. in decades.
The parasitic fly was detected in a 3-week old calf, and there have been no other detections in the U.S. so far.
The pest is named for the maggot’s behavior of burrowing into flesh and causing serious or fatal wounds in animals. Last year, it advanced northward through Mexico after being mainly contained in Central America for several decades. Before U.S. officials declared the fly eradicated in 1966, the wounds from the parasites would kill wild and domestic animals, costing up to hundreds of millions of dollars.
In a statement to Source NM, U.S. Rep. Gabe Vasquez (D-NM) said the case in La Pryor, Texas, which is about 500 miles from the New Mexico state line, poses “a major risk to cattle operations in New Mexico and if spread, could wreak havoc on domestic beef prices.”
Vasquez also noted that he and others have been “asking USDA for clear guidance for this very moment and urging the agency to speed up its timeline to finish the sterile fly facility we approved many months ago.” Now, he noted, “We must take immediate action now to prevent further spread.”
The U.S. Department of Agriculture said in a statement Wednesday it would deploy a specialized team to partner with Texas agriculture officials; establish additional surveillance and quarantine procedures within in a 12-mile radius; and deploy more “sterilized flies” — males that have been irradiated and can no longer reproduce — to try and prevent spread.
New Mexico officials launched a one-stop website in mid-May to track potential New World screwworm cases in the state, offer resources for identifying the fly and the best contacts if an infestation is spotted.
Samantha Holeck, state veterinarian with the New Mexico Livestock Board, said the state is taking an “all-hands-on-deck approach” to provide outreach and education to animal shelters, ranchers and hunters to identify the pest.
“The nationwide shortage of veterinarians makes this a challenge,” she told Source NM “So it’s people that are out there every day – not just the livestock industry, but animal shelters, rescues — they’re gonna be our first line of detection if they’re seeing animals that are affected and reporting it promptly.”
Holeck said New Mexico will offer any support to Texas agriculture officials and watch the response closely to determine the best surveillance and treatment steps.
“We’ve worked hard to prepare these plans and now it’ll be time to test them,” she said.
