Cassandra Garrison and Tom Polansek
According to four sources familiar with the situation, Buenos Aires/Chicago (Reuters) – A man from Maryland travelled to the United States from Guatemala to find a carnivorous screwworm parasite.
The man was treated in Maryland and was the first confirmed case of New World Screwworm, a parasite that can eat cattle and other warm-blooded animals as the outbreak began to escalate and moved northward from the end of last year from Central America and southern Mexico.
South Dakota state veterinarian Beth Thompson told Reuters Sunday that a person who knew the Maryland case directly informed her last week.
The second source requesting that it was not identified said they had seen an August 20 email from a director of the Beef Alliance, the industry group, in the livestock and beef department, telling them that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention had confirmed a human case in Maryland, who had encountered the giants’ track among Marylanders in the United States.
A source said state veterinarians learned about human cases in Maryland during a call with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention last week. Maryland government officials also confirmed the case.
Thompson said the CDC delayed the issue to Maryland in a phone call with national animal health officials. “We found out through other routes and then had to go to the CDC to tell us what was going on,” she said. “They didn’t show up at all. They turned it back to the state to confirm anything that happened or what was found in this traveler.”
A CDC spokesperson and a Maryland Department of Health spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment. It was over a week before USDA Secretary Brooke Rollins and other administration officials traveled to Texas to announce plans to build sterile flight facilities there.
What is a screwworm? Screwworms are parasite flies whose females lay eggs in the wounds of any warm-blooded animal. After the eggs hatch, hundreds of screwworm larvae dig into live meat with sharp mouths, and if untreated, eventually killing their host.
The feeding of maggots is similar to driving screws into wood, giving the pests.
Screwworms can be devastating in cattle and wildlife, and few invade humans, although animal or human infestations can be fatal.
Treatment is heavy and involves removing hundreds of larvae and thoroughly disinfecting the wound. However, intrusions can usually survive if treated early.
The Beef Alliance director shared the content with Reuters on August 20 email, saying the positive case of New World Screwworm in Maryland has been confirmed.
The follow-up email from the same group said that due to patient privacy laws, no other details are available. The email said the person was treated and precautions were implemented in the state.
According to the emails, a livestock economist at Texas A&M University has been asked to prepare a report for Rollins about the impact on the border closure of Mexican cattle, a measure that has been in effect since November to prevent the arrival of screwworms.
One of the emails said the CDC must report the active New World Screwworm case to Maryland health officials and Maryland veterinarians, adding that the CDC also notified other agricultural stakeholders.
“We still hope that since the current awareness is limited to industry representatives and state veterinarians, the likelihood of leaking positive cases is low, thus minimizing market impact,” the beef industry director wrote.
Representatives of the Beef Alliance did not respond to a request for comment.
Impact on beef and beef futures
The U.S. confirmed screwworm boxes may rattle in the beef and cattle futures market, with U.S. cattle herds reaching the smallest in seventy years due to strict supply and highest prices.
The case and the lack of transparency around the case could also present political challenges to Rollins, who repeatedly promised to keep the screwworm away from the country. The USDA has set traps and sent cavalry along the border, but it faces criticism from criticism from certain cattle producers and market analysts because they haven’t acted faster to pursue increased flies’ production.
Rollins first announced plans to establish a sterile flight facility at Moore Air Force Base in Edinburgh, Texas – during the last major outbreak 50 years ago, during the last major outbreak in June, during the massive outbreak in June, the facility will take two to three years to access the Internet online. A USDA spokesman did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Mexico is also working to limit the spread of pests, which could kill livestock in a few weeks if left untreated. The Mexican government said in July it began building $51 million sterile production facilities in the southern part of the country.
The only operating plant is located in Panama City and can produce up to 100 million sterile screwworms per week. The USDA estimates that 500 million flies need to be released every week to restore the flies to the Darian Gorge in the rainforest between Panama and Colombia.
Since 2023, the screwworm has traveled northward from Central America across Mexico. According to the US Department of Agriculture (USDA), they are endemic in Cuba, Haiti, the Dominican Republic and South American countries.
Mexico reported a new case in July, about 370 miles south of the U.S. Ixhuatlan de Madero. After the cessation of imports in November and May, the USDA immediately ordered the closure of livestock trade through southern ports of entry.
The United States usually imports more than one million cattle from Mexico each year to make feedlots and process them into beef.
In the 1960s, researchers began to release large quantities of sterilized male screwworms that intersected with wild female screwworms to produce sterile eggs, eliminating the screwworms.
The USDA estimates that the screwworm outbreak could damage Texas’ economy, the largest cattle state in the U.S., with about $1.8 billion in livestock deaths, labor costs and drug costs.
(Reported by Cassandra Garrison in Buenos Aires and Tom Polansek in Chicago. Reported by HeatherSchlitz in Chicago’s Additonal, as well as Leah Douglas and Jarrett Renshaw in Washington. Edited by Emily Schmall and Diane Craft)
