US HALTS cattle imports from Mexico and quoted a Spree worm: NPR

The new world screwing worm is endemic in parts of Latin America and the Caribbean – and its spread to the north in Mexico has alerted US officials.

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The US officials have prompted concerns about a carnivorous parasite to stop all imports of living cattle, horses and bison across the southern border.

The agricultural secretary Brooke Rollins made the decision on Sunday, citing the spread of the new world worm to the north, which was detected in South Mexico last year.

“The protection of our animals and the security of our nation’s food supply is of the greatest importance,” said Rollins in a statement.

“This is not about Mexico’s policy or punishment, but about food and animal security,” she said.

New globe worms are fly larvae that dig into a wound or mucous membrane of animals and rarely people.

The maggots celebrate with tiny oral hooks on the meat and blood of their host. If left untreated, the parasitic infection is killed in a full -blown cow within one to two weeks.

The efforts to get rid of the pest decades decades for many decades.

In fact, in the 1960s and 1970s, the United States and Mexico were able to remove the screweworm of the new world by releasing hundreds of millions of sterile adults who would mate with the females, which ultimately prevented them from laying viable eggs.

This strategy contributed to creating a “barrier zone” that did not enter the pest into the USA and Mexico, although the cases from time to time would still appear.

In 1976, sufferers A outbreak into Texas more than 1.4 million cattle and hundreds of thousands of sheep and goats. If such an outbreak were made now, according to a USDA analysis, this would cost the Texas economy of 1.8 billion US dollars.

The potential failure is the reason why agricultural officials are so alerted that the pest has achieved a comeback in recent years.

In parts of Central America, cases have increased and are now discovered in some “remote farms” in Mexico about 700 miles from the US border, said the USDA on Sunday.

As a result, the United States closed the live animal trade on the border in November. This was lifted in February after the United States and Mexico agreed on new measures to keep parasite at bay.

According to the USDA, the new ban continues to “month after month” until a significant contamination window is reached “.