Flesh-eating screwworm in Texas: Gov. Abbott signs statewide disaster declaration

AUSTIN, Texas - Governor Greg Abbott and state health officials say they are moving swiftly to address the first case of flesh-eating screwworm found in the U.S. in Texas.

What they're saying:

At a news conference this afternoon, Gov. Abbott stressed that there was no food safety issue and that it was a food production issue. 

Abbott updated a statewide declaration to authorize the use of and reallocate resources to respond and make available any and all state personnel to accelerate the eradication of the screwworm.

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Part of the eradication plan involves the major sterile fly dispersal and production facility in Edinburg. Most of the efforts will be in Zavala and Uvalde counties.

Officials said the focus now is containment and education, urging ranchers and pet owners to inspect animals daily for even small wounds.

"Any larvae on a living animal is a reportable issue and what that does is lets us mobilize more quickly so that we can get to the animal, provide treatment to it, eliminate those fly larvae from becoming adults and perpetuating the problem," Texas A&M Department of Entomology Dr. Phillip Kaufman said.

"It's terrible. It's like right out of a horror movie," Texas Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller said.

Miller is pushing for additional tools, including a method he said was used successfully decades ago.

"What we're doing is definitely not working. We could have stopped it if we would use a fly bait, that's how we stopped it in the seventies and eighties, the fly bait is ninety five percent effective, but USDA refuses to use the fly bait," Miller said.

What you can do:

Officials urge people to check animals daily and check small wounds and tick bites.

Wounds should be treated promptly.

People are asked to work to reduce fly populations.

Officials said this is highly treatable when caught early. They are encouraging anyone who suspects a case to report it immediately, saying they have successfully eradicated the New World screwworm before and they believe they can do it again. 

The backstory:

The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service said the flesh-eating parasite was detected in the umbilical area of a 3-week-old calf in Zavala County, Texas, located southwest of San Antonio.

The New World screwworm is considered one of the most devastating livestock and wildlife pests in history. Unlike common fly larvae, screwworm maggots burrow into and feed exclusively on the living flesh of warm-blooded animals, causing severe injury, massive economic loss, and death if left untreated. While rare, they can also infect humans.

The USDA and the Texas Animal Health Commission have formed a unified Incident Command Team and established a 12-mile infested zone around the Zavala County site, implementing strict quarantines and movement controls on live animals.

To eradicate the population, federal officials are expediting the release of billions of laboratory-raised sterile flies, deploying ground release chambers to supplement the four million sterile flies already being dispersed aerially in the region each week. When wild flies mate with the sterile flies, no offspring are produced, eventually collapsing the population.

"Texas Health Commission USDA staff have been in close communication with the owner. The herd has been inspected for additional infestations. There have been none. The herd is being treated. The baby calf that had the infested navel wound is doing well, and the navel is healing nicely," Texas Animal Health Commission Lewis Dinges said.

Officials said the recovery of that calf doesn’t mean the treat is gone.

"I want to reassure all of you that we've been preparing for this and are taking rigorous actions to protect the rest of the state and the nation from this pest," Dinges said.