9 ms·

A 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-d

A 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 ago
Why 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 ago
  DOGE. It was ran by USAID.
  - treetalker 1y ago
    [flagged]
  - smallmancontrov 1y ago
    [flagged]
    - mindslight 1y ago
      Musk 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!"
  - VladVladikoff 1y ago
    It was failing long before this. The border used to be down by Panama.
    - cogman10 1y ago
      The first sign of spread past panama was seen in Nov 2024. Parasites can spread fast and the US/Mexico needed to react fast to the fact that it spread past panama. In a critical time when monitoring and action were desperately needed, we eliminated the agency that'd do that.
      - literalAardvark 1y ago
        It wasn't a critical time, it was late. If there had been any political will for this things would have been set in motion since 2023, likely even before that when the reports from the scientists working on control started pouring in. Blaming a few weeks of funding lapse one year into an outbreak in a control project that's been running for decades is absurd. From a link in this thread: However, since 2023, cases have been increasing in number and spreading north from Panama to Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Honduras, Guatemala, Belize, and Mexico.
        asacrowflies 1y ago
        Late is still a critical time...perhaps more critical.
        cogman10 1y ago
        Fair point. The cost to fight this back will definitely exponentially increase.
        tptacek 1y ago
        Ok, but where did you get that Nov '24 date from? You just agreed with a comment that falsified that claim.
        1y ago
- jfengel 1y ago
  Yeah, it got cut back in March. https://kbhbradio.com/usda-cuts-budget-staff-for-animal-disease-control-suspends-imports-of-live-cattle-from-mexico-again/#:~:text=In%20March%202025%2C%20funding%20was,and%20Agriculture%20Organization%20(FAO). https://kbhbradio.com/usda-cuts-budget-staff-for-animal-dise... Part of it was restored a couple of months later.
  - stretchwithme 1y ago
    The flies didn't JUST start moving north this year.
    - varelse 1y ago
      [dead]
    - jiggawatts 1y ago
      Which makes cutting funding for the program that much stupider, no?
- throwup238 1y ago
  Funding was recently cut but this infestation has been building for years. The key failure that caused this current outbreak was during COVID. The lockdowns shut down both the release flights by the US and the mosquito breeding facilities in Latina America, grinding the whole pest control program to a halt.
  - Noumenon72 1y ago
    Someone must have decided they weren't "essential". Big mistake.
    - andsoitis 1y ago
      Not essential. We can eat less beef. Better for health, the environment.
      - kristjansson 1y ago
        And we should encourage that by leveraging the response to a natural disaster to advance your particular policy goals?
      - ajmurmann 1y ago
        Doesn't this impact wildlife as well? Apparently the Florida Key Deer was threatened by this a decade ago: https://www.avma.org/javma-news/2017-01-15/screwworm-infestation-kills-endangered-deer https://www.avma.org/javma-news/2017-01-15/screwworm-infesta...
      - Numerlor 1y ago
        Screwworm also infects wildlife and occasionally humans, it's really not something you want to have in the area if you can help it
        20after4 1y ago
        It sounds like it's more than occasionally infecting humans: 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...
- tomrod 1y ago
  [flagged]
  - ajmurmann 1y ago
    I have no idea. It certainly seems insanely careless to me to defund something like this but I haven't found anything in my brief research that gives me an idea of the impact. Intuitively I'd expect that to show up in the data a little later (assuming that data is still being collected)
- zahlman 1y ago
  > Brief research tells me the screwworms broke though to Mexico in November 2024 after cases started increasing north of the Darian Gap throughout 2023 Elsewhere in the thread people have posted explainer videos (of how the program works) from 2024 that seem entirely unaware of any such breach.
- starkparker 1y ago
  Smuggling's also a contributing factor, at least in Honduras: https://www.drovers.com/news/industry/surprising-link-between-cattle-cocaine-and-screwworms-comeback https://www.drovers.com/news/industry/surprising-link-betwee...
- GeekyBear 1y ago
  > Why is it "used to be"? > Decades ago, screwworms were endemic throughout Central America and the southern US. However, governments across the regions used intensive, coordinated control efforts to push the flies southward. Screwworms were eliminated from the US around 1966, and were pushed downward through Mexico in the 1970s and 1980s. They were eventually declared eliminated from Panama in 2006, with the population held at bay by a biological barrier at the Darién Gap, at the border of Panama and Colombia. However, in 2022, the barrier was breached, and the flies began advancing northward, primarily through unmonitored livestock movements. The latest surveillance suggests the flies are now about 370 miles south of Texas. https://arstechnica.com/health/2025/08/texas-prepares-for-war-as-invasion-of-flesh-eating-flies-appears-imminent/ https://arstechnica.com/health/2025/08/texas-prepares-for-wa...
  - stretchwithme 1y ago
    Considering the widths of Panama and Mexico, holding them south of Panama had to be much cheaper.
JKCalhoun 1y ago
Great (gross) video from the Department of Energy (1960) on how the screwworm was defeated: https://youtu.be/QFoOnS6CWSI https://youtu.be/QFoOnS6CWSI

ajmurmann 1y ago

Why 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 ago
DOGE. It was ran by USAID.
- treetalker 1y ago
  [flagged]
- smallmancontrov 1y ago
  [flagged]
  - mindslight 1y ago
    Musk 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!"
- VladVladikoff 1y ago
  It was failing long before this. The border used to be down by Panama.
  - cogman10 1y ago
    The first sign of spread past panama was seen in Nov 2024. Parasites can spread fast and the US/Mexico needed to react fast to the fact that it spread past panama. In a critical time when monitoring and action were desperately needed, we eliminated the agency that'd do that.
    - literalAardvark 1y ago
      It wasn't a critical time, it was late. If there had been any political will for this things would have been set in motion since 2023, likely even before that when the reports from the scientists working on control started pouring in. Blaming a few weeks of funding lapse one year into an outbreak in a control project that's been running for decades is absurd. From a link in this thread: However, since 2023, cases have been increasing in number and spreading north from Panama to Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Honduras, Guatemala, Belize, and Mexico.
      - asacrowflies 1y ago
        Late is still a critical time...perhaps more critical.
      - cogman10 1y ago
        Fair point. The cost to fight this back will definitely exponentially increase.
        tptacek 1y ago
        Ok, but where did you get that Nov '24 date from? You just agreed with a comment that falsified that claim.
        1y ago
jfengel 1y ago
Yeah, it got cut back in March. https://kbhbradio.com/usda-cuts-budget-staff-for-animal-disease-control-suspends-imports-of-live-cattle-from-mexico-again/#:~:text=In%20March%202025%2C%20funding%20was,and%20Agriculture%20Organization%20(FAO). https://kbhbradio.com/usda-cuts-budget-staff-for-animal-dise... Part of it was restored a couple of months later.
- stretchwithme 1y ago
  The flies didn't JUST start moving north this year.
  - varelse 1y ago
    [dead]
  - jiggawatts 1y ago
    Which makes cutting funding for the program that much stupider, no?
throwup238 1y ago
Funding was recently cut but this infestation has been building for years. The key failure that caused this current outbreak was during COVID. The lockdowns shut down both the release flights by the US and the mosquito breeding facilities in Latina America, grinding the whole pest control program to a halt.
- Noumenon72 1y ago
  Someone must have decided they weren't "essential". Big mistake.
  - andsoitis 1y ago
    Not essential. We can eat less beef. Better for health, the environment.
    - kristjansson 1y ago
      And we should encourage that by leveraging the response to a natural disaster to advance your particular policy goals?
    - ajmurmann 1y ago
      Doesn't this impact wildlife as well? Apparently the Florida Key Deer was threatened by this a decade ago: https://www.avma.org/javma-news/2017-01-15/screwworm-infestation-kills-endangered-deer https://www.avma.org/javma-news/2017-01-15/screwworm-infesta...
    - Numerlor 1y ago
      Screwworm also infects wildlife and occasionally humans, it's really not something you want to have in the area if you can help it
      - 20after4 1y ago
        It sounds like it's more than occasionally infecting humans: 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...
tomrod 1y ago
[flagged]
- ajmurmann 1y ago
  I have no idea. It certainly seems insanely careless to me to defund something like this but I haven't found anything in my brief research that gives me an idea of the impact. Intuitively I'd expect that to show up in the data a little later (assuming that data is still being collected)
zahlman 1y ago
> Brief research tells me the screwworms broke though to Mexico in November 2024 after cases started increasing north of the Darian Gap throughout 2023 Elsewhere in the thread people have posted explainer videos (of how the program works) from 2024 that seem entirely unaware of any such breach.
starkparker 1y ago
Smuggling's also a contributing factor, at least in Honduras: https://www.drovers.com/news/industry/surprising-link-between-cattle-cocaine-and-screwworms-comeback https://www.drovers.com/news/industry/surprising-link-betwee...
GeekyBear 1y ago
> Why is it "used to be"? > Decades ago, screwworms were endemic throughout Central America and the southern US. However, governments across the regions used intensive, coordinated control efforts to push the flies southward. Screwworms were eliminated from the US around 1966, and were pushed downward through Mexico in the 1970s and 1980s. They were eventually declared eliminated from Panama in 2006, with the population held at bay by a biological barrier at the Darién Gap, at the border of Panama and Colombia. However, in 2022, the barrier was breached, and the flies began advancing northward, primarily through unmonitored livestock movements. The latest surveillance suggests the flies are now about 370 miles south of Texas. https://arstechnica.com/health/2025/08/texas-prepares-for-war-as-invasion-of-flesh-eating-flies-appears-imminent/ https://arstechnica.com/health/2025/08/texas-prepares-for-wa...
- stretchwithme 1y ago
  Considering the widths of Panama and Mexico, holding them south of Panama had to be much cheaper.

JKCalhoun 1y ago

Great (gross) video from the Department of Energy (1960) on how the screwworm was defeated: https://youtu.be/QFoOnS6CWSI https://youtu.be/QFoOnS6CWSI