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U.S.-Mexico border temporarily closed to cattle imports

Sonoran Cattle Exports
Murphy Woodhouse/KJZZ
Sonora is one of Mexico's most import cattle exporters.

The U.S. has temporarily suspended Mexican cattle imports after the discovery of a case of New World Screwworm in the Mexican state of Chiapas.

The screwworm case was identified at an inspection checkpoint point close to Mexico’s border with Guatemala. The shutdown of cattle imports across the U.S.-Mexico border affects the many cattle ranchers in Sonora, just south of Arizona, well over 1,000 miles from the reported case.

The president of the Sonoran ranchers’ union, Juan Ochoa Valenzuela, said in a video shared to social media that state and federal authorities are working on a solution.

According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, New World Screwworms are fly larvae that can burrow into the flesh of warm-blooded animals and can often be deadly. The United States eradicated the pest in 1966.

More Southwest Border news

Nina Kravinsky is a senior field correspondent covering stories about Sonora and the border from the Hermosillo, Mexico, bureau of KJZZ’s Fronteras Desk.