The University of Arizona is ramping up education and prevention efforts for Arizona ranchers in the weeks after the New World screwworm parasite entered Texas.
The deadly parasite is now threatening the United States’ already low cattle supply after several cases of the parasite have been confirmed in the United States this month.
The vast majority of those cases have been concentrated in south Texas.
But Arizona’s ranching community is still on high alert, said University of Arizona extension specialist Amy Ganguli.
“People want information,” Ganguli said. “They’re asking for advice on what they can do now. We tell them right now we’re asking people to not necessarily be alarmed but be aware.”
The University of Arizona Cooperative Extension has been working to provide inspection kits for ranchers, Ganguli says. Those kits contain tools to collect samples for testing of maggots found on livestock that a rancher suspects could be screwworm.
