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Mexico to US livestock trade halted due to screwworm spread
- icy 1y ago[flagged]
- kriops 1y ago(Implied) invalid generalization, or confirmation bias. This is a good reason to not eat that particular meat. In general, however, meat is an S-tier source of nutrition, vitamins, and minerals.
- burnt-resistor 1y ago[flagged]
- dang 1y agoYou've been breaking the site guidelines egregiously in many different threads. If you keep this up, we're going to ban you. I don't want to ban you because you've also posted good things, but we badly need you to fix this. We've already asked you once (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44751806 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44751806). If you'd please review https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html and stick to the rules when posting here, we'd appreciate it.
- progbits 1y agoHow can something which is horribly inefficient for environment (water use, land use, greenhouse emissions from fertilizer) possibly be S tier?
- VladVladikoff 1y agoBiodiverse farms with animals and plants, rotating crop fields, are far more ecologically friendly than pure plant farms.
- kriops 1y agoWhat a weird question, if it was at all genuine. Not only is it not inefficient but, e.g., cows are absolutely unique and amazing for their ability to digest, e.g., grass into something that is highly nutritiously desirable for humans.
- progbits 1y agohttps://ourworldindata.org/land-use-diets https://ourworldindata.org/land-use-diets What you say is maybe true but irrelevant. We don't have to grow grass.
- HDThoreaun 1y agoCrappy grass is the only thing that grows in the upper plains because there isnt any water.
- kriops 1y agoAsserting ruminants are “irrelevant” tells me nobody should take you seriously on this topic. Replicating their function is the problem to solve if you ever want to make the case you think you are making.
- deleted 1y ago[deleted]
- jaian 1y agoBecause that's not what we are talking about.
- tomxor 1y agoMeat especially grass fed beef, is not just protein, it's an incredibly dense source of nutritients. You have to eat far higher quantities and ranges of plant based alternatives to acquire the same nutritional value, and they are usually less bioavailable. So from the perspective of the person consuming it, it's very efficient source of nutrients, and also the most satiating food you can eat, so you won't feel the urge to overeat. Abstractly, using land for crops is around an order of magnitude more efficient when considering only calories per unit area, but when considering the total system i.e the humans consuming it, there's an argument to be had that more livestock could be more efficient when considering all the side effects of a huge population of malnourished humans overeating refined hyper-paletable carbs. For either side of this argument, the real issue is industrial agriculture producing both crops and livestock in unsustainable and nutritionally devoid ways, that are incredibly bad for the environment and humans consuming it.
- Pxtl 1y agoFood that eats food isn't ever gonna be good thermodynamics.
- jolmg 1y agoCalories isn't the only thing that's needed from food.
- inetknght 1y agoPlenty of pests affect crops too.
- echelon 1y ago[flagged]
- wizzwizz4 1y agoYes? Horrific things don't stop being horrific, just because they're the status quo. (But this is wildly off-topic.)
- burnt-resistor 1y ago[flagged]
- burnt-resistor 1y ago[flagged]
- iamacyborg 1y agoReally? All year? In this current political climate?
- croes 1y agoTo be fair, we don’t know what they read this year.
- croes 1y agoBy that logic you could argue rape is just nature too. At some point mankind added moral.
- delichon 1y agoOf course rape is natural. Orangutans, ducks, geese, and certain dolphin species also rape. That's a problem if you think "natural" justifies human behavior, but why would it?
- 1y ago
- burnt-resistor 1y ago(Blue dot in hill country TX here.) Yep. I hear that. <saturday-soap-box> The strictly rational selfish ones are pandemics (virus evolution), antibiotic resistance (bacterial evolution), prion diseases (mad cow), anthropogenic climate change, and air, water, and soil pollution. And that's not even getting to animal cruelty that could never chip away at the hedonism addiction cognitive dissonance and rationalizations. Ben Franklin, Leonardo da Vinci, Clint Eastwood, Mark Cuban, GZA, Paul McCartney, ... half of Hollywood. </saturday-soap-box>
- edot 1y ago[flagged]
- soulofmischief 1y agoAs a non-meat eater I've gotten used to how riled up and defensive people get over the mere suggestion that eating meat in today's industrialized society comes at an ecological and economic cost that we can't afford in the long run. I find much better luck engaging people by suggesting reduced consumption of meat vs. total abstinence.
- analog31 1y agoDon't worry about it. We'll all be allergic to meat eventually thanks to that tick.
- deleted 1y ago[deleted]
- Glyptodon 1y agoOne more thing where we're going back in time. Sure seems like a new decline and fall is coming bit by bit.
- deleted 1y ago[deleted]
- neom 1y agoI'd never head of screwworm before, turns out it's not a worm, this page is pretty decent: https://cr.usembassy.gov/sections-offices/aphis/screwworm-program/ https://cr.usembassy.gov/sections-offices/aphis/screwworm-pr... "A screwworm infestation is caused by larvae of the fly Cochliomyia hominivorax. These larvae can infest wounds of any warm-blooded animal, including human beings. The screwworm fly is about twice the size of a regular house fly and can be distinguished by its greenish-blue color and its large reddish-orange eyes. Infestations can occur in any open wound, including cuts, castration wounds, navels of newborn animals, and tick bites. The wounds often contain a dark, foul-smelling discharge. Screwworm larvae distinguish themselves from other species by feeding only on the living flesh, never dead tissue. Once a wound is infested, the screwworm can eventually kill the animal or human, literally eating it alive." - Sounds great.
- guerrilla 1y ago> Screwworm larvae distinguish themselves from other species by feeding only on the living flesh, never dead tissue. What assholes. :(
- lazide 1y agoYeah the switch on these guys was definitely flipped to ‘evil’
- mc32 1y agoThe key to managing this pest [edit: after it breaches the isthmus program] is through active monitoring, treating infested wounds as well as conducting castration and dehorning in less active months. It’s not like cattle herds didn’t exist prior to the 1950s.
- tptacek 1y agoThat's in fact not how screwworms are managed; the "border" of screwworm prevalence was managed by spreading sterilized male screwworms.
- zeagle 1y ago[flagged]
- colechristensen 1y agoHere's a video describing the system that fell apart which had been working for a long time to keep these flies out of north america https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Olj8arvfYj4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Olj8arvfYj4
- neutered_knot 1y agoA story from 2020 about how effective the US funded anti-screwworm program used to be. 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... Archive link: https://archive.ph/3sD9d https://archive.ph/3sD9d
- ajmurmann 1y agoWhy is it "used to be"? I've heard about the program before and thought it was incredible. What happened to it? Edit: Brief research tells me the screwworms broke though to Mexico in November 2024 after cases started increasing north of the Darian Gap throughout 2023 (https://www.aphis.usda.gov/news/program-update/new-world-screwworm-equines-updates-january-17-2025 https://www.aphis.usda.gov/news/program-update/new-world-scr...). It does seem like the funding now is happening through USDA rather than USAID (https://www.aphis.usda.gov/livestock-poultry-disease/cattle/ticks/screwworm https://www.aphis.usda.gov/livestock-poultry-disease/cattle/...) and there likely was a funding gap. As much as I like to blame the current administration for defunding USAID the breakthrough happened earlier.
- cogman10 1y agoDOGE. It was ran by USAID.
- treetalker 1y ago[flagged]
- smallmancontrov 1y ago[flagged]
- mindslight 1y agoMusk certainly shares responsibility, but focusing responsibility on him lets others escape blame - eg Trump, Congress, the corpo and individual edgelord enablers sanguine about chaos, etc. And frankly, it's sad enough for Musk already - richest guy in the world, he could have actually done something politically on his own, and yet he still ends up being used as a useful idiot scapegoat by a con artist. "But Trump promised he cared about the debt!!1!1!"
- mistyvales 1y agoDidn't they pull funding for mitigation programs regarding this? Or was that rescinded?
- ethan_smith 1y agoYes, the USDA-APHIS Screwworm Barrier Maintenance Program had its funding reduced by 30% in the 2024 budget, which significantly impacted sterile fly production capacity at the Panama facility.
- Panoramix 1y agocitation? USDA approved an emergency funding of 165 million in 2024 for this issue https://www.aphis.usda.gov/news/agency-announcements/usda-approves-emergency-funding-protect-us-livestock-animals-new-world https://www.aphis.usda.gov/news/agency-announcements/usda-ap...
- sejje 1y agoIf he says the budget was reduced, isn't the citation already made? Government budgets are usually public. Do you want a secondary source, like a news article?
- fc417fc802 1y agoThe claims aren't exclusive.
- drhodes 1y agoA recent, relevant video from Kurzgesagt: How Nuclear Flies Protect You from Flesh-Eating Parasites https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zxq60I5RSW8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zxq60I5RSW8
- raaron773 1y agoI was wondering where i heard the term screwworm before!
- cogman10 1y agoUSAID was in charge of the program which monitored screwworm spread in central and south america. The way you combat screwworm is by releasing sterile male flies in screwworm outbreak areas.
- LMYahooTFY 1y agoDo you have a source? Because this appears to be false. I can't find anything indicating it was funded by USAID. Everything I'm reading says it has been funded by USDA, and in fact funding has been significantly increased during 2025.
- cogman10 1y agohttps://www.agri-pulse.com/articles/22636-bird-flu-screwworm-monitoring-among-foreign-aid-programs-killed-by-trump https://www.agri-pulse.com/articles/22636-bird-flu-screwworm... USDA manages the production of the sterile flies. USAID was a major funding source for the UN Food and Agriculture Organization which did the monitoring.
- nnutter 1y agoI appreciate you citing the USAID funding but you seem to be trying to prove a point rather than get to the truth. Screwworm detection and prevention was not halted because of the USAID shutdown, USDA is actively working on it, one can see this by going to usda.gov and searching for "screwworm". I really appreciate ajmurmann's edit which acknowledges this.
- bryant 1y agohttps://www.agri-pulse.com/articles/22636-bird-flu-screwworm-monitoring-among-foreign-aid-programs-killed-by-trump https://www.agri-pulse.com/articles/22636-bird-flu-screwworm... > Among the GHS projects killed were some dedicated to *monitoring and containing avian flu and New World Screwworm in Central America, monitoring* avian flu outbreaks in Asia and improving the detection of new strains, and efforts to combat swine fever, according to a person familiar with the situation granted anonymity to speak frankly. you might not have intended to mislead, but the cited source indicates that at least some were defined and thus halted, in partial contradiction to your line "Screwworm detection and prevention was not halted because of the USAID shutdown"
- grej 1y agoThe US successfully eradicated screwworms here in 1966 with a brilliant integrated sterile insect technique - I think the very first use of it (and had previously funded helping other countries control it also). But if we had another outbreak spread, I doubt there's any shred of competence left in this current gutted federal government to do anything like that again. Maybe they can have the new ICE folks try to deport the screwworm flies.
- jfengel 1y agoThey announced funding to do it again, back in June. But I have no idea if there's anyone around to pay.
- superxpro12 1y agoLead times are asymmetric.
- luketaylor 1y agoThe current plan was announced here a few weeks ago: https://www.usda.gov/about-usda/news/press-releases/2025/06/18/secretary-rollins-announces-bold-plan-combat-new-world-screwworms-northward-spread https://www.usda.gov/about-usda/news/press-releases/2025/06/...
- amoshebb 1y agoSome folks are posting about the regular flights over Panama, and I’ve seen talk about ending screwworm with a “gene drive”, but I also feel that it doesn’t feel necessary. But a third option I don’t see talked about a lot: finish the job. We could drop sterile flies all over the USA and Mexico all the way into panama with 1950s tech. We have drones now, surely some inexpensive paper planes shoved out of the back of hercs could cover roughly all of south america for fairly cheap.
- throwup238 1y agoThere is no finishing the job. Screwworm flies have tons of reservoirs in the jungles of Central America that aren’t practical to eliminate for logistical and ecological reasons. We can only control the population in agriculturally important areas by constantly releasing the sterile male flies every year. Whenever we stop the releases, the flies bounce back in a few years.
- rdl 1y agoThe durable reservoirs are in South America, not Central America. We actually eradicated it (at least essentially) all the way down to the Darien Gap.
- amoshebb 1y agoSee I guess I find broadside “impractical” dissatisfying. Could a few cargo ships be converted into floating fly farm aircraft carriers on either coast, maybe another in the amazon, and then just use a hundred reaper drone type things to do a creeping barrage? This must be within the budget of even a modest nation state.
- jeff_lee 1y agoFeels like we had the cure in our hands and just let the disease walk back in.
- db48x 1y agoThe “cure” is an unceasing war. Then COVID hit and the war ceased for a few months.
- Eextra953 1y agoSo with pests and viruses there is no real eradication? Do they really require an unceasing war to reign them in? I have no knowledge of this field - just curious.
- hotep99 1y agoScrewworms could probably be eradicated in theory but it would require spreading the sterile fly program to the entirety of the Americas which isn't going to happen. There would always be a pocket somewhere in the Amazon of fertile flies so it isn't really viable. The point of stopping them at the Darien Gap was that there was a geographically small area where their spread could be halted from entering Central and North America and re-establishing themselves.
- db48x 1y agoIt depends on the pest. Some of them are easier to eliminate than others. With screwworm flies the only offense we have is to raise them by the billions, sterilize them with radiation, chill them down, and then drop them out of airplanes. Fertile females end up mating with sterile males and then cannot lay any eggs before they die. Each generation then becomes radically smaller than the previous. Since their lifecycle is only a few weeks long this eliminates them in a few months. They were able to successfully eradicate the screwworm fly from North and Central America, but a combination of expense and diplomatic entanglements prevented them from continuing south past Panama. There have been outbreaks before, most notably in Egypt (or maybe just northern Africa, I forget) a few decades ago. We have different responses to other pests. For example, Florida maintains a mosquito control program that sprays vast swathes of the state with insecticide from both the ground and the air every 7 days. I imagine that other southern states do as well.
- whynotmaybe 1y ago> This is maintained with stringent animal movement controls, surveillance, trapping, and following the proven science to push the NWS barrier south in phases as quickly as possible. Why add "proven" before science? Nobody expects the USDA to handle such problems with "unproven science", for whatever it could be. For decades they've made the sterilized flies by exposing them to gamma radiation that damages their reproductive system and it's been effective. Am I getting doubtful of every announcement from this administration or are they trying to tackle conspiracy theories from the start?
- duskwuff 1y ago> Why add "proven" before science? I'm pretty sure it's a political thing, and is meant to be read as "don't worry, we aren't using any problematic science like mRNA vaccines".
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- thrown-0825 1y agoI assumed this was a computer virus affecting an exchange based on it being at the top of HN.
- dlisboa 1y agoWith this and the tariffs on Brazil the US consumer is going to feel it.
- Pxtl 1y agoThis was literally one of the first North American disasters I saw predicted as falling out of the Doge cuts.
- renewiltord 1y agoThe barrier failure happened last year due to covid related supply chain issues that eventually reached the end of the bullwhip and was announced then.
- Eextra953 1y agoAny other predictions you saw/see coming? I feel like it would be useful to collect all of the predictions from people with domain knowledge and then build a website to track them all. Whether or not they happen, who knows, but being able to track them should be a big help in building a narrative of what is really happening vs media narratives that are hyper localized in time and often do a terrible job of explaining the long history of events.
- delfinom 1y agoThis predates the DOGE cuts. During COVID and afterwards smuggling of cattle across from South America into Central America basically went full tilt and is considered the reason why the program collapsed. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/global-health/science-and-disease/man-eater-screw-worm-parasite-honduras-central-america/ https://www.telegraph.co.uk/global-health/science-and-diseas...
- deleted 1y ago[deleted]
- Bender 1y agoWhether your meat comes form South America or the US or the EU, always wear gloves when handling raw meats and don't touch your face. There are thousands of types of dangerous larvae that can infect via the eyes rubbing the eyes or the nose picking ones nose when handling raw meats and vegetables. Cutting meat slices thinner and cooking them well kills larvae. Marinating meats with something that contains acetic acid also helps. Stomach acid takes care of the rest. Beware of the fear porn spreading around this issue. I have already seen articles posted showing what happens when rubbing ones eyes or picking ones nose after handling raw food and of course it is horrific but screw worms are just one of many real risks. Food handlers in first world countries are taught not to touch their faces and to wear gloves among many other safety practices with raw meats and vegetables. Everyone both vegetarian and carnivore unknowingly eat many types of larvae, bacteria, mold, fungus and insects all the time. I know I will get beat up for going against the agenda but I am that guy.
- Aurornis 1y ago> I know I will get beat up for going against the agenda but I am that guy. Food safety with raw meets isn’t really going against the agenda.
- renewiltord 1y agoWhat's with everyone saying they know some secret that everyone else is trying to suppress? Is it just that we all spend time in our bubble and take that to other groups? I don't even know what agenda he's going against by saying one should be careful around raw meat. Who's on the other side of this?
- sejje 1y agoHe's so effectively standing alone that nobody dare stand against him.
- f1shy 1y agoI have had lots of discussions with people who insist in eating all raw. I have been in a restaurant where a teenager ordered a raw beef right beaid us. Made me sick just of seeing, feeling the raw meat smell, and hearing the chewing. I have seen enough “chefs” handling raw meat in tv, putting it literally seconds in heat, and basically eating raw. There is no agenda, but I do see a trend.
- erredois 1y agoComing from a family that has cattle and dairy cows in south eastern Brazil, where screwworm is endemic, I was surprised when I listened to a podcast about screwworm, and some of the descriptions about how huge the problem was in the US. After some research it appears it affects more climates that are always hot and humid, and big operations where the animals are not being checked frequently. Also the handling at the 60s was probably much worse than modern techniques for avoiding animals being hurt and treating when they are infected.
- Aurornis 1y ago> I was surprised when I listened to a podcast about screwworm, and some of the descriptions about how huge the problem was in the US. It’s not a huge problem in the US. We eradicated screwworm in the 60s. We are trying very hard to keep it out. The US normally works very hard to monitor and prevent these situations in trade partners. https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/flesh-eating-screwworm-parasites-are-headed-to-the-u-s/ https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/flesh-eating-scre...
- shazbotter 1y agoWas. Was in the U.S. Was is past tense, indicating a historical problem, not a current one.
- nabla9 1y ago‘Man-eating’ screw worm turns hospital into horror show https://www.telegraph.co.uk/global-health/science-and-disease/man-eater-screw-worm-parasite-honduras-central-america/ https://www.telegraph.co.uk/global-health/science-and-diseas... Mexican Livestock halted while US is in trade war with Brazil (21 percent of all US beef imports).
- ryanmerket 1y agoJuly 9th? Wrong date or is this a month old?
- xipho 1y agoVery hard to escape biology unless you invest in understanding it. Ticks, mosquito-born diseases, agricultural pests, they don't care about AI, politics, or space-races or geo political boundaries. We, on the other hand, require life to go on, it's asynchronous. This is why natural history collections, and taxonomists are going to be more critical than ever, at some point we'll need to re-invest in knowing what's out there, and, more importantly how and why it's different than what we knew before. Biodiversity is vast, this isn't easy. Companies that anticipate this (we know we're going to get a billion requests for "what's this fly", how can we monitize this?), and also actully understand that species are literally invaluable lab experiments running millions of years, are bound to benefit. In a not so distance Scifi future will we see big pharma, defense, etc. protecting areas and their environments because they finally grok this?
- zwnow 1y agoI highly doubt big pharma will intervene. Humans only care about the foreseeable future. Our interest and actions regarding climate change shows that openly to each and everyone of us.
- xipho 1y agoBig pharma will intervene when they realize that life is one big chemistry experiment, and it's running longer than any lab has. AI to predict, nature to produce, then you need to figure out how nature produced. Understanding the pathways in nature -> quicker time to product.
- paulcole 1y agoIn what is it “asynchronous”?
- bspammer 1y agoI'm sure they meant asymmetrical
- xipho 1y agoChild comment is probably right, "asymmetrical" was likely going through my mind, or some chimera of both. I mean to say that whatever humans do, their actions ("requests"), don't get a response from "nature" immediately, the "response" is unpredictable, particularly as to when it will come back. If we get a break down SS, we get no response. Request(s) -> nature impacted -> some time passes -> response comes back, but not all nice and linear, nor always what we expected. "Promises" only coming with deep understanding.
- guhcampos 1y agoI think mr Trump will have to seriously rethink the 50% tariff he put on our (Brazilian) meat imports then. Interesting.
- sparrish 1y agoYeah, cause you guys don't have screw worms in Brazil? It's likely the screw worms in Mexico now came from Brazil.
- chris_wot 1y agoAmerica put a large tariff on Australian beef. We don’t have this. Guess you all like eating expensive beef.