MARY LOUISE KELLY, HOST:
Federal officials have confirmed three more cases of the New World screwworm in Texas. That brings the state's total to five in less than a week. These latest cases were found in a calf in south Texas, a goat in Gillespie County and a dog in Andrews County hundreds of miles away in west Texas. The flesh-eating parasite was eliminated from the United States decades ago, so its return is raising concerns about livestock, wildlife, pets and the economic consequences for the nation's largest cattle-producing state. Texas Public Radio reporter David Martin Davies has been following the outbreak. Hey there.
DAVID MARTIN DAVIES, BYLINE: Hey. It's good to be here.
KELLY: Hey. Tell me more exactly about what the new word (ph) - the - (laughter) figuring out how we say it. The New World screwworm, what is it? What does it do to an animal?
DAVIES: Well, the New World screwworm is the larval stage of a parasitic fly. It is - actually, it's a maggot that eats living flesh. The female fly lays her eggs in an open wound or sometimes around the eyes, nose, mouth or any other body openings of a warm-blooded animal. Without treatment, the infestation can kill the animal. It primarily threatens cattle and other livestock, but it can also infect wildlife, household pets and, less common cases, people.
KELLY: So how is Texas responding? How are the federal, the USTA responding?
DAVIES: Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins was in Texas today. She said this is an emergency, but she wanted to stress that it is not going to impact or hurt the quality of food in the United States.
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BROOKE ROLLINS: This does not affect the food supply system. This is not a virus. It is not a disease. It is a pest. And so we, obviously, are treating it as such, but the food supply system remains intact and couldn't be safer.
DAVIES: Secretary Rollins also said the USDA in Texas, they're deploying appropriate responses to try to stop the spread of screwworm. There's a (ph) quarantine for livestock movement. Texas has established infested zones where all animals will be checked, sterile fly releases in the impacted areas. USDA in Texas have about 75 people actively deployed in the field.
KELLY: And, David, you were out talking to folks, including ranchers. What did you see, by the way of response?
DAVIES: Yeah. I was in Zavala County yesterday. So that's where the first two young calves were first detected. That's about 150 miles southwest of San Antonio, 50 miles from the border. There really wasn't that much to see in the way of that response. I was in La Pryor, small town, where the first case was confirmed on Wednesday. There was a roadside checkpoint where state animal health officials were doing voluntary inspections of animals. Christian Biedenarn has a ranch about two hours south of San Antonio in La Salle County, where the third infested calf was found. He says ranch hands are keeping a very close eye on the herd.
CHRISTIAN BIEDENARN: We need those quarantine zones, and we actually have methodology to treat them in terms of sterilization of, you know, those flies. And we need funding, and we need to be able to deploy those flies as fast as possible.
KELLY: But, David, just going back to underscore - this is only five cases. You said a minute ago that Agriculture secretary, Brooke Rollins, was calling this an emergency. Why?
DAVIES: So there's a reproductive potential of the fly - it's staggering. And the difficulty of controlling it once it becomes established, it's going to be tough. The screwworm was eradicated from the U.S. in the 1960s through an enormous federal campaign, dropping millions of sterilized screw flies in the impacted areas. It's a way to combat the spread of the screwworm. But the United States does not have its own supply of flies.
KELLY: OK.
DAVIES: You got to get them from Panama and Mexico. There aren't enough of them. We're working on a new facility. It won't be ready until May of 2027.
KELLY: David Martin Davies of Texas Public Radio, thanks.
DAVIES: Thank you. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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