The U.S. Agriculture Department plans to reopen part of the U.S.-Mexico border to cattle later this month. On Aug. 24, the Douglas, Arizona, port will become the first to allow cattle from Mexico to travel into the United States.
The border has been closed because of the New World screwworm, which has affected ranchers and others in both countries.
At the same time, officials continue to work on ramping up efforts to produce and release sterile flies, to try to eradicate the parasite.
The Show talked about this with Paul Brierley, director of the Arizona Department of Agriculture, starting with the factors that led to the reopening of this section of the border to cattle.
Full conversation
PAUL BRIERLEY: Well, there were quite a few. One is that Sonora, our sister state on the other side of the Arizona border, has done excellent work. They actually have a long history of doing excellent work on diseases. Their brucellosis-free, they’re almost tuberculosis-free, and so they work really hard on their disease protocols.
And they did the same thing with New World screwworms. So their governor issued decrees, limited movement of cattle from within Mexico and everything else. So they did a great job that is recognized by USDA. On our side, certainly not having that supply of cattle coming in is really devastating the feeder industry, the feedlots that they come to and get fed in. It’s hurting the border communities, and I hear about that almost every day.
And you’ve seen what it’s done to the beef supply. So beef prices are really high, that’s because the herd is the smallest level it’s been in decades. Normally, just in Arizona, about 300,000 head of cattle come across every year. ... And so it’s been closed for over a year, so, yeah, it was time to reopen, I think.
A number of other things. It’s the secretary of agriculture’s decision, and she’s watching what’s happening with the screwworm, right? And they’ve been coordinating with Mexico and doing the sterile fly drops and everything else. So she’s been watching that, and then feels at this point that they’ve done as well as they can to control it.
MARK BRODIE: Is there a significance that this is the first place where it’s being reopened as opposed to, say, New Mexico or Texas?
PAUL BRIERLEY: Absolutely, a lot of significance — and I mentioned some of them. Also, we’re just physically the furthest away from where the screwworm is in Mexico, so that helps, too. And we have two ports, actually, Douglas and Nogales, both of which could open, but at this point they’re starting with Douglas. But yeah ... Sonora is recognized as the best Mexican state with this, and then we’ve put a lot of new safeguards in place as far as how we inspect and everything else. So I think put all that together, and they picked Douglas.
MARK BRODIE: So, yeah, so you reference some screening practices that you’re going to be doing. What are those going to look like for cattle coming into Arizona from Sonora?
PAUL BRIERLEY: So let’s start with USDA. So USDA’s actually present on the Mexican side, and when cattle come to the Mexican side for coming across, they are inspected. They’re held in pre-inspection holding pens, and I think three to five days they’re held there, and then they’re inspected again.
And, again, this is not like bird flu, avian influenza, where it’s a microscopic virus or something. This is a pest that people can see, and so if you inspect animals, you can find it. So they’re inspected twice, and then before they come across to Arizona, they go through a dip, so they’re completely dipped in a pesticide, and then they come across. OK, so that’s the USDA side, and those are enhanced protocols for the New World screwworm.
MARK BRODIE: And that’s all in Mexico.
PAUL BRIERLEY: That’s all in Mexico. So if they find anything at all, those cattle are turned away, and they never come to the United States. Once they do come across, then we on the Arizona side have put in place new requirements where, first of all, it’s required that each animal be inspected by an accredited veterinarian on our side, and they issue what’s called an International Certificate of Veterinary Inspection. So every animal has a certificate that goes with it to say, yes, it’s been inspected by a veterinarian.
We require electronic ear tags, which is new, and that lets that animal be traced back to where it came from and where it’s going. Because one of the things Sonora has done is said, “We’re not going to export any cattle from any other Mexican state, only Sonora.” And then when the loads leave — a lot of them, some of them are for Arizona feedlots, but a lot of them go to Kansas or Texas or other states for those feedlots, and so when a load of cattle leaves, we will have inspectors down there that put together all this documentation, and say, “OK, in this load, it’s these cattle, and they’ve been inspected, and here’s where they’re going,” and all that. So, yeah, so there’s a lot of new protocols in place, and I think these animals are going to be kind of the most highly inspected animals in the world, I think, by the time they ship out of Arizona.
MARK BRODIE: So how confident are you, then, that with these protocols in place, that you can essentially keep screwworm from crossing from Sonora into Arizona, and then potentially, as you referenced, into other parts of the country?
PAUL BRIERLEY: So that’s a nuanced question. I’m confident in that they won’t bring it across on cattle because of these procedures, but the screwworm is not selective. Any warm-blooded animal, and so a lot of the concern is wildlife, and can it be transported with wildlife? And it has been transported on pets, also. The one case in New Mexico was a dog that had been in Mexico and then came back.
So those are kind of two different things. One is, I am very confident it won’t come across on cattle that are coming across through the legal channels and all that, but there could be cattle that come through a break in the fence or something like that, or wildlife that come across. So I’m not saying we’re completely out of the woods, but this — all these procedures, I believe, will keep it from coming in on cattle.
MARK BRODIE: What have you been hearing from ranchers and other folks sort of in the cattle world in Arizona about what the closed border has meant for them and what it will potentially mean for them later this month when it opens up?
PAUL BRIERLEY: Well, if you’re a rancher, for one, you’ve enjoyed the high beef prices. And you really don’t want the New World screwworm here, because it does take quite a toll on cattle. ... The biggest way to combat it is to have eyes on your animals. Well, in Arizona, often you only see your cattle twice a year when you’re branding and medicating and things like that, and then the rest of the time they’re out on the range. So it’s a little hard for us to do that here. So they really don’t want the screwworm here. As I mentioned, though, we have a whole feeder industry, feedlots that feed the cattle that come up, and they’ve been just clamoring for it to open safely.
MARK BRODIE: Is it your expectation that after Aug. 24, when this port reopens, that folks in Washington and elsewhere will be sort of watching to see how it goes and then maybe use that as a template to reopen other parts of the border?
PAUL BRIERLEY: Absolutely, and they’ve even said that. So I don’t think they’ll be opening in Texas anytime soon, but they did say that based on a successful reopening in Arizona, then they would look at a couple of the ports in New Mexico. And we’ve been advocating that, again, there is Nogales, also, and Nogales is a good, functioning port. It’s actually the furthest away from where screwworm is. ... And Sonora still is screwworm-free, whereas Chihuahua, which is on the border with New Mexico, is no longer screwworm-free. So I think there’s a number of reasons that we kind of hope they’ll consider opening both Arizona ports.
MARK BRODIE: Do you think that we will eventually re-eradicate this?
PAUL BRIERLEY: I do. They’re putting in a very, very large — it’s like a $750 million facility in Texas to produce ... the sterile flies. So, yeah, I do think they’ll get a handle on it. Nothing’s really changed. It’s known what needs to be done, it’s just that we just don’t have the production facilities right now.
One other neat, little thing going on right now as far as the sterile flies is, if you think about it, it’s the sterile male flies that you need to impact the situation, but when you produce the flies, you’re getting about half male and half female. So there is a new technique that is about to come online that the ones you produce ... would be only male. So that effectively doubles the amount of sterile flies that you have to release.
MARK BRODIE: All right, that is Paul Brierley, director of the Arizona Department of Agriculture. Paul, thanks so much. Appreciate it.
PAUL BRIERLEY: You bet.
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