It’s been more than a year since Mexico reported its first case of a flesh-eating parasite in a cow near the Guatemala border.
Mexican Agriculture Secretary Julio Berdegué says his country’s cattle ranching industry is in a position to resume exporting to the United States.
The United States has paused those exports intermittently over the past year to protect its cattle herds from the New World screwworm, a flesh-eating fly larva that is deadly to warm blooded animals.
The closure has deeply affected ranchers in Sonora, who have been barred from exporting their cattle across the border for several months, despite no reports of the parasite in Arizona’s neighboring state.
Mexico has been modernizing inspection points throughout the country and working with the United States to build and expand sterile fly production facilities. Those facilities produce flies that do not have offspring when they mate, which experts say is the most effective way to dwindle the population.
Berdegué says Mexico has been able to contain 99.9% of cases far from the U.S. border in the south and southwest part of his country. He says the few cases detected in northern parts of the country have not led to spread of the parasite there.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture has not indicated when it will reopen the border to cattle.
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Cattle from Mexico have been barred from the United States for most the past year to prevent the parasite from entering. Ranchers in Sonora say this method was a mistake. -
Mexico’s foreign secretary says 14,000 Mexican nationals remain in immigration detention in the United States as Mexico pursues consular and legal action. -
The move comes after a nearly yearlong ban of Mexican cattle into the United States to protect against the New World screwworm parasite. -
The San Luis port of entry from Sonora, Mexico, is Arizona’s westernmost border crossing, and could see delays for four to five months starting later this month. -
No cases of the flesh-eating New World screwworm parasite have been reported in Arizona, but USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service in the state has recommendations for ranchers to protect against it.
