CBS NEWS – The U.S. government on Wednesday released a five-prong policy initiative to stop the spread of New World screwworms in live cattle and other animal imports, including its plan to build an $8.5 million insect dispersal facility in Texas.
Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins said her department plans to open what amounts to a fly factory by the end of the year.
The facility will breed millions of sterile New World screwworm (NWS) flies at Moore Air Base, according to the initiative. The male flies will then be released into the wild to mate with females and prevent them from laying eggs in wounds that become flesh-eating larvae.
It would be only the second facility for breeding such flies in the Western Hemisphere, joining one in Panama that had largely kept the flies from migrating further north until last year.
“The United States has defeated NWS before, and we will do it again,” Rollins said during a news conference at the South Texas air base with other state and cattle industry officials.
Late last year, the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department warned outdoor enthusiasts to watch out for animals that may be impacted by the dangerous “man-eater” parasites from flies that lay eggs in open wounds, nostrils, eyes and mouths. Last month, the U.S. Department of Agriculture suspended imports of live cattle, horses and bison from Mexico.
The New World Screwworm has been making its way further north through the Americas, Texas officials said, and the fly’s appearance in southern Mexico has worried agriculture and cattle industry officials and veterinarians’ groups.
The scientific name for the parasite, Cochliomyia hominivorax, is roughly translated to “man-eater,” according to the USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service …
