The U.S. Agriculture Secretary, Brooke Rollins, said that the United States and Mexico have agreed to handle a damaging pest called New World screwworm after she threatened to limit cattle imports south of the border.
Screwworms can infest livestock, wildlife, and, in rare cases, people. Maggots from screwworm flies burrow into the skin of living animals, causing severe and often fatal damage.
Rollins sent a letter to Mexican Agriculture Minister Julio Berdegue on Saturday, April 26th, warning that the United States would restrict livestock imports from Mexico on April 30 if the Mexican government did not take further action against the pest.
During a tour of an Ohio egg facility, Rollins said she had spoken with Berdegue and agreed on the issue.
“More will be released on that in the next few hours. It came to a good resolution,” she said.
President Claudia Sheinbaum said on Monday that Mexico has been working to respond to screwworm and is strengthening its efforts.
The U.S. typically imports more than a million cattle a year from Mexico.
Blocking imports would further tighten U.S. supplies, which have dwindled to their lowest levels in decades, pushing up beef prices. U.S. ranchers have increasingly sent cattle to slaughter instead of keeping them to reproduce, as drought has dried up pasture lands used for grazing in recent years.
Following the discovery of screwworm in Mexico, Washington prohibited Mexican cattle from late November through February. The U.S. Department of Agriculture aims to prevent the pest from returning to the United States after eliminating it in 1966.
Following claims that Mexico has impeded U.S. attempts to combat screwworm south of the border, the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association said it had spoken with officials at the Mexican Embassy in Washington.
According to organisation president and Nebraska cattleman Buck Wehrbein, “Screwworm is very destructive and could cost American producers millions of dollars a year if it reaches us.”
Source: Reuters
Image Credit: Mexico News Daily
