University of Arizona receives $3.74 million grant for New World screwworm readiness

The University of Arizona has received a $3.74 million grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture to bolster the state against a flesh-eating parasite.

The grant is part of a USDA program to fund preparations for potential spread of the New World screwworm, a parasite that arrived in Texas in June.

The screwworm maggots burrow into living animal tissue and can be deadly if left untreated. The more than two dozen confirmed cases so far in Texas have largely been reported in livestock animals.

“We want to make sure that should the New World screwworm appear in Arizona, that we as a state and as a whole are ready to respond accordingly and provide those support resources for communities,” said University of Arizona extension specialist Amy Ganguli.

Much of the grant will focus on technology that can help detect or predict screwworm cases in livestock as well as wildlife, like new mapping techniques, as well as virtual fencing collars and GPS ear tags for cattle.

The grant will also go toward collecting oral histories from people in Arizona, New Mexico and Texas who had firsthand experience with the New World screwworm before it was officially eradicated from the United States in the 1960s.

“It really gives us a powerful network to ground our work in what is going to be most applicable to communities,” Ganguli said.