Confirmed cases of New World Screwworm bring reasons for vigilance, but not panic. That’s according to South Dakota State University Extension Veterinarian Dr. Russ Daly, who said the fly has limited range.
“They can fly long enough, you know, don’t get me wrong. Six to eight miles, but it’s certainly not something where a screwworm fly from Texas is going to fly up to Nebraska or South Dakota and cause a problem.”
Daly says the concern is not the movement of this fly but the movement of cattle across the country.
“We move animals very easily and very readily. And there’s at any given time. There are hundreds of thousands of cattle on the road, you know, so it’s not out of the realm of possibility that something could have been moved up from down in that area, and you don’t even know that that you moved it up here. So, it’s a reason for all of us to be vigilant, you know, not just looking at Texas and saying, ‘Well, that’s a that’s a problem down there.’ Because, like you mentioned, of all the animal movement, everybody needs to have this in the back of their minds.”
Daly says there are injectable and topical treatments, but said the process can be fairly involved.
“It’s not something that, you know, is going to wreck the whole cattle industry in one fell swoop. But it is going to be something that I think is going to be a nagging problem. It’s going to be, just given the geography. South Texas is a pretty widespread area, so it’s going to be tricky to get rid of it. So, it’s going to be something we’re probably going to have to live with for a while and deal with.”
Daly says producers should be mindful, especially of cattle moved in from southern states.
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