The US announced that it will temporarily stop importing live cattle, horse, and bison through ports along the southern border due to the outbreak of the screwworm pest in Mexico.
The suspension takes effect immediately, US Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins stated on Sunday. “There has been unacceptable northward advancement” of the New World screwworm, technically a flesh-eating fly, and more must be done to slow its expansion, according to a US Department of Agriculture release.
Protecting the country’s livestock is “a national security matter of the highest level,” Rollins stated, pointing out that the move “is not about punishment or politics against Mexico, but it is about food and animal safety.”
Screwworm is an infesting fly whose larvae consume the living tissues of warm-blooded mammals and birds, both domestic animals and wildlife. The US eliminated screwworm during the 1980s after a highly effective biological barrier campaign conducted with Mexico and Central American countries.
But in 2023, screwworm detections in Panama surged from an average of 25 cases per year to over 6,500 cases in one year, the US Department of Agriculture reports. It has since been found in Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Honduras, Guatemala, Belize, El Salvador, and Mexico.
Its potential return to the US has concerned ranchers. Mexico and the US will revisit the suspension of imports in two weeks, although the policy will remain on a monthly basis until there is effective containment, the Department of Agriculture stated.
Mexico Agriculture Secretary Julio Berdegue, in an X post, stated that his administration does not agree with the policy, but believes that an agreement will be reached in the near future.