Eduardo Morales
YUMA, Ariz. (KYMA, KECY) – Brooke Rollins, the United States Secretary of Agriculture, announced the suspension of importing live cattle, horse, and bison from Mexico, because of a parasitic fly.
The New World Screwworm, which the USDA describes as a deadly parasitic fly has been spreading through Mexico.
According to Oklahoma State University, from 2004-23, 1.17 million heads of Mexican cattle were imported into the U.S.
This year alone has seen 148,035 cattle imported into Arizona from Mexico, according to the USDA.
“It’s not really anything we want to see back in the United States again, certainly don’t want it to impact cattle markets, and we don’t want it to impact wildlife or livestock,” said John Boelts, the President of the Arizona Farm Bureau.
A few weeks ago, Sec. Rollins spoke on how they are trying to combat the spread of these flies.
“Planes [with sterile flies] that we’re trying to land, that is what will push that New World Screwworm back into the south of Mexico and into southern Latin America,” said Rollins.
This was a strategy they used to originally remove the fly from the United States decades ago.
“This dangerous pest was originally eradicated in the US in 1966 and was successfully pushed down to the south of Panama using a sterile fly program,” says Rachel Andrews, the public information officer for the Arizona Department of Agriculture.
The AZDA describes the process of how using sterile flies works.
“Essentially the flies mate only once, so if a sterilized male mates with a wild-fertile female, the life cycle ends because she produces unfertilized eggs thereby decreasing the fly population,” Andrews said.
Meanwhile, Boelts describes what effects this could possibly have on the market.
“This will probably have an impact on beef prices, we do a lot of beef trade with Canada, and so, the U.S and Canada will probably supply the bulk of the U.S. beef demands,” Boelts says.
Any livestock that is currently in holding for entry will be processed but also examined to ensure they are not carrying the fly.
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