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Deadly Screwworm Parasite's Comeback Threatens Texas Cattle, US Beef Supply
- perihelions 1y agohttps://archive.is/ul6JR https://archive.is/ul6JR
- Krasnol 1y ago> “New World Screwworm: The Threat Returns.” I love this. The whole country is like movie theme parks patched together seamlessly. I wonder how the king will frame this.
- andsoitis 1y ago> I wonder how the king will frame this. The screwworm cases are in Mexico according to the article, threatening Texas / US cattle. So the framing would be pretty straightforward. One can imagine the word “vermin” rearing its head.
- neuroelectron 1y agoIs ivermectin not an option? My fat pet rat got mites and was miserable, itchy and too painful to scratch. One grain of rice dose from the infamous horse tube cleared him right up.
- unsnap_biceps 1y agohttps://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/3840994/ https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/3840994/ Seems to show that it does, but I guess the logistics of keeping a herd of cattle covered by giving shots every two weeks may be difficult. And there still is damage to the animal
- giardini 1y agoIvermectin liquid "pour-on" is poured along the backbone of cattle (just as you do in cats and dogs with flea medications).
- unsnap_biceps 1y agoThe study I linked to showing the effectiveness of Ivermectin was only done subcutaneously. I did not find a study on the effectiveness of non-subcutaneous Ivermectin treatments on screw worms. Given one of the areas they focused on the study is the scrotal area post castration, I don't expect that a pour on would cover that area well enough to be an effective treatment. Happy to read other studies if you have them showing otherwise.
- giardini 1y ago[flagged]
- 8note 1y agofrom your google lin https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2211320720300385 https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S221132072... is quite funny, where they found that the lambs were licking the topically applied ivermectin, but also that they didnt notice any decrease in parisites for any of the ingestion/injection/topical they also say theres nothing showing any applicability to cattle
- neuroelectron 1y agoYou can use it topically but typically it's an oral dose.
- MillironX 1y agoThere are injectable and transdermal (pour-on and ear tag) forms for cattle and pigs. I'm not aware of an oral formulation for food animals, even though that's pretty common for horses.
- MillironX 1y agohttps://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/9403981/ https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/9403981/ The article you referred to (and I've seen linked elsewhere in this thread) is about "regular" screwworm (Chrysomya bezziana). The recent outbreak is of New World Screwworm (Cochliomyia hominivorax). The article I've linked suggests that it is much harder to kill than regular screwworm (29% of calves developed myiasis even when treated with ivermectin).
- giardini 1y agoGoogling "Cochliomyia hominivorax and ivermectin" yields "Ivermectin can be an effective treatment for myiasis, a condition caused by the larvae of certain dipterous flies, including Cochliomyia hominivorax (the New World screwworm). Studies have shown that ivermectin, when administered orally or topically, can help eliminate the larvae and reduce the severity of the infestation, especially in cases of orbital or oral myiasis. "
- Levitating 1y ago> Googling ... yields What source are you referring to currently?
- ceejayoz 1y agoThere’s also resistance to worry about if used widely.
- kergonath 1y agoYou still need to remove them, otherwise you have decomposing maggots in an infected would, which is a great way of killing whatever you were trying to save.
- davidw 1y agoQuick, get those cattle a special preparation of carrot juice, cod liver oil and turmeric, stat!
- aaronbrethorst 1y agoIronically I bet ivermectin would actually be useful here.
- sandworm101 1y agoWrong type of worms. These are fly larva. Invermectin is useful against intestinal and heartworms.
- TeaBrain 1y agoThis old study found ivermectin efficacious in treating screw worm infected cattle: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1751-0813.1985.tb14913.x https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1751-0813....
- nkurz 1y agoI appreciate the attempt to ground the discussion in research, but as MillironX pointed out elsewhere, ivermectin turns out to be less effective on Cochliomyia hominivorax (which the article is about) than on Chrysomya bezziana (which the paper you cited is about).
- TeaBrain 1y agoThat is interesting, although I'm not seeing the comment you're referencing. I read the article this morning, but I hadn't noted that there were possibly multiple types of screw worm. Looks like the Cochliomyia hominivorax is only one that the Americas typically have to deal with, so that was the only one that made sense in the context. However, that a anti-parasitic is more effective at killing one type of screw worm than another doesn't mean much by itself. That statement would hold true even if it had 99% efficacy against one type vs 98% efficacy against another.
- andsoitis 1y ago” Now, after being eradicated from the US since the early 1980s and largely forgotten, top veterinarians expect the screwworm could be back as soon as the summer. More than 950 cases have been reported in Mexico so far this year, including one within miles of a livestock checkpoint in Chiapas. A resurgence in the US would have devastating consequences for farm animals and wildlife”
- e40 1y agoI was surprised to learn recently that we import a LOT of cattle. It's the reason many other countries will not take US beef, because the provenance of our beef isn't as precise as it needs to be, for those foreign consumer laws.
- chneu 1y agoWe also treat our cows with antibiotics that a lot of countries ban. A lot of our meat is also treated with chemicals that other countries ban. It's why Europe won't import a lot of US beef.
- ujkhsjkdhf234 1y agoThis is true of a lot of our food. Trump, now and in 2016, has been trying to force the UK to buy US chicken and the Brits are NOT having it because US food standards are below that of the UK.
- gruez 1y ago[flagged]
- ocharles 1y agoBecause we know the implications of poor quality food, and we also know those who would buy it have no choice but to buy the cheapest. So, no thanks. I'd much rather the state intervene here and keep this crap out. This "let consumers choose" argument is tiring when consumers don't have the ability to choose. They are just trying to survive
- giardini 1y ago[flagged]
- Loughla 1y agoHow will you treat the wild animal population? Or are you assuming that just treating livestock will solve the problem?
- RecycledEle 1y agoLots of things hurt cattle, but they do not threaten our domestic beef supply. They are just things for farmers and ranchers to deal with. Think of it this way: Leaving lug nuts loose in new cars does not threaten our nation's auto supply.
- cyberge99 1y agoSure it does if you loosen enough of them to create hysteria.
- giardini 1y agoSpoken like a true saboteur. But how many lug nuts must you loosen to create hysteria? And why do I have the peculiar feeling that you've never held a lug wrench in your hands?
- ben_w 1y ago15. Assuming 5 per wheel and applying the proverb of "three men make a tiger"*, they just have to be the new cars of three famous people who are likely to get in the news for a wheel falling off. * https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three_men_make_a_tiger https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three_men_make_a_tiger
- RecycledEle 1y agoYou can set out free (medicated) food for the wildlife. That will treat the vast majority of them.
- accrual 1y agoThis topic always leads me back to reading about the Darién Gap [0]. When eradication was working successfully, they had managed to push the screwworm population all the way back to the Gap and keep it out of major population/agriculture areas. There were (or are) yearly efforts to perform the sterile insect technique [1]. Expensive to perform, but worth it for all the damage they'd otherwise cause if left unchecked. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dari%C3%A9n_Gap https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dari%C3%A9n_Gap [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sterile_insect_technique https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sterile_insect_technique
- beached_whale 1y agoNot expensive at all. 10s of millions of dollars a year is my understanding.
- bglazer 1y ago$200 million in total, approximately the cost of two (2) F35B fighter jets https://cr.usembassy.gov/sections-offices/aphis/screwworm-program/ https://cr.usembassy.gov/sections-offices/aphis/screwworm-pr...
- janice1999 1y agoArstechnica reports it "is estimated to have saved US farmers $900 million every year." Not sure where they source the number from. https://arstechnica.com/health/2025/05/screwworms-are-coming-and-theyre-just-as-horrifying-as-they-sound/ https://arstechnica.com/health/2025/05/screwworms-are-coming...
- beached_whale 1y agoAh thanks. I thought it was lower, but in the scheme of things it's still cheap and it prevents people from getting it too.
- deleted 1y ago[deleted]
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- labster 1y agoOh well, we can just import beef with our renowned free trade policies.
- throwup238 1y agoThis is why a competent and well staffed bureaucracy is so important. Screwworm is really easy to eliminate by flooding their population with males sterilized by radiation (females only mate once in their lifetime so their population falls off fast). There are factories in Latin America already set up to do so at large scale, all it would take is a contract with the USDA to guarantee enough supply for the states. Edit: Hah, I get to eat my words. Turns out USDA and APHIS have been trying to fly planes over Mexico to release the sterile flies, but the Mexican government has been restricting the flight days and denying landing permission, which has hampered the program. Looks like the Mexican bureaucracy is the one failing here, and USDA/APHIS might be running pre-emptive releases in the US (but I can't find a source on that). They just agreed to lift those restrictions and cooperate more at the end of April.
- andsoitis 1y ago> There are factories in Latin America already set up to do so at large scale, all it would take is a contract with the USDA to guarantee enough supply for the states. According to the article the cases are in Mexico, so I don’t know that “Latin American origin” is a silver bullet.
- snowwrestler 1y agoMore on the screwworm barrier and how it was established. This is one of my favorite “magazine style” feature stories. https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2020/05/flesh-eating-worms-disease-containment-america-panama/611026/ https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2020/05/flesh-ea...
- jauntywundrkind 1y agoSalon had a lovely article last week, on how deteriorating relationships between US and Mexico is threatening the effective work the US had been doing of creating and spreading sterile male flies that have successfully stopped the Screwworm invasion. https://www.salon.com/2025/04/28/we-once-rid-the-us-of-this-nasty-parasite-now-it-could-be-coming-back/ https://www.salon.com/2025/04/28/we-once-rid-the-us-of-this-...
- canucker2016 1y agoArs has an article on screwworms - 1 guess as to the writer. see https://arstechnica.com/health/2025/05/screwworms-are-coming-and-theyre-just-as-horrifying-as-they-sound/ https://arstechnica.com/health/2025/05/screwworms-are-coming... The last word of the article has a link to a video with very unsettling imagery involving screwworms.
- unfitted2545 1y agogood day to be a vegan.
- vips7L 1y agoIt’s always a good day to not participate in the cruelty and evil that is animal farming.
- timschmidt 1y agoThere's a big difference between https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Concentrated_animal_feeding_operation https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Concentrated_animal_feeding_op... and traditional family farms. In a traditional family farm, animals can live happy and relatively full lives while offsetting a tremendous amount of petroleum products in the form of fuel, insecticide, herbicide, fertilizer, equipment, etc.
- vips7L 1y agoWhatever lets you sleep at night my friend.
- timschmidt 1y agoYou ever watch a plant filmed in time lapse? They're active just like animals. They feel and communicate and are our relatives just the same. Everything on this planet eats a living cousin, save for the photo and chemosynthesizers. Such is life. The similarity of our proteins and other molecules is exactly what makes us nutritious to each other. I sleep just fine. The backyard garden is fruitful. The chimkins are happy and laying eggs. Thankful for the opportunity to enjoy it!
- vips7L 1y agoPlease stop lying to yourself. You know damn well eating a plant and an animal are completely different things. You wouldn’t be saying these things if the aliens came and harvested your children for food.
- adamc 1y ago[flagged]
- giardini 1y ago[flagged]
- redserk 1y agoThese aren’t remotely on the same level. A bunch of internet commenters, regardless of how informed, generally have no sway in policy. It’s text on a page that can be easily —- and in almost all cases -- be safely ignored. However, a government administration’s stance to actively eliminate entire segments of a government that are responsible for disease management is an actual problem.
- amazingamazing 1y agoYou say this as if people aren’t the ones enabling the government.
- giardini 1y agoredserk says >... It’s text on a page that can be easily —- and in almost all cases -- be safely ignored.< No, b/c to ignore something one must first read it and, in it's reading, waste one's time and effort. Our intellectual lives would be better if the text were never placed on the page to start.
- reverendsteveii 1y agoIt's a great day to be heavily punishing imports!
- heresie-dabord 1y agoHeavily punishing your own citizens for buying imported goods in a highly-integrated global economy.
- kylehotchkiss 1y agoWith this and bird flu and inflation, it wouldn’t hurt people to learn to eat less meat throughout the week. A day or two vegetarian so if any of these things escalate at least you have a feel for it ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
- danso 1y agoTangential aside but what does this mean: > live demonstrations on how to handle cattle to reduce stress.(Every cow pie released by a stressed-out cow before it gets weighed by meat processers amounts to $6 in lost profit.)
- unsnap_biceps 1y agoRanchers get paid a flat per pound price for whole animals. When they take a shit, their total weight goes down and thus the ranchers lose the flat per pound price for that pile of shit, which evidently is about $6.
- scandox 1y agoI first learned about these delightful creatures after reading The Screwfly Solution by Alice Sheldon: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Screwfly_Solution https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Screwfly_Solution
- drumhead 1y agoThis is going to be a test of the "new improved" post Doge USDA. We'll see how well it copes with a real agricultural crisis with reduced staffing and funds.
- toofy 1y agoindeed. it will also not be limited to one agriculture crisis. the number of things these departments do that we don’t realize is crazy. putting out fire after fire. since these departments generally don’t brag about non-sexy things like … screwworms, a certain type of person with tunnel vision, who imagines themselves to be smarter at everything than everyone else that has ever lived, they will imagine they failed not because of their own dipshittery but because of an imaginary ghost foe. this is perhaps one of the greatest failures of that generation, so many of them seem to have a complete inability to see that other people may be intelligent at something. their tunnel vision is crazy af to see. it’s gonna be hilarious to watch them cry about the messes they caused. they’ll try to blame everyone else for the mess they created.
- giardini 1y ago>Outside a bar in southern Arizona in 1890, a stagecoach driver stumbled into the night and fell asleep in the open air, unknowingly becoming host to hundreds of screwworms while passed out drunk. The parasitic insects made their way through his nose, into his throat, and eventually killed him — a grim but once relatively common occurrence.< From "Screwworm eradication lessons from a longtime veterinarian" https://www.agdaily.com/livestock/screwworm-eradication-lessons-from-a-longtime-veterinarian/ https://www.agdaily.com/livestock/screwworm-eradication-less... An excellent article on the realities of screwworm in USA. It also speaks of topical treatments! Unfortunately though and to our great loss no doubt, it does not go into detail about "the scrotal area post castration" of unsnap_biceps fascination on these posts nor "lambs ...licking the topically applied ivermectin" so titillating to 8note. (FWIW ivermectin pour-ons contain ethanol.)