At the Hemphill County Beef Conference in Canadian, Texas, Senior Farm and Ranch Broadcaster Ron Hays had the chance to talk with National Cattlemen’s Beef Association CEO Colin Woodall, who was speaking at the conference. The two men discussed Secretary Rollins calling out the Mexican government for undermining American interests in the battle against the New World screwworm.
Woodall detailed the screwworm’s presence in Mexico and the bureaucratic red tape that previously hindered progress to prevent the insects’ continued Northward march.
“Fortunately, Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins has taken a significant leadership role here, and has reached out to the government of Mexico and told them what our expectations are, that they need to cooperate, that they need to coordinate,” Woodall detailed. “Not only is this an impact for us as U.S. cattle producers, but it is impacting their cattle producers, too. We cannot afford to have those critters come back North and affect us like they did back in the ‘60s – the last time we had a big outbreak, and that time, we were able to eradicate them.”
The NWS female fly only mates once in its lifetime. With this understanding, the sterile insect technique has been utilized for the eradication of the pest. The US and Panama operate the sterile male fly production facility in Panama through the US Commission for Eradication and Prevention of Screwworm. This facility has historically produced 100 million sterile flies per week. Male flies are irradiated at the facility and then released to mate with wild females.
Currently, more than 1,000 cases of NWS infections have been reported in Mexico, but so far, the flies are being kept just outside of the Yucatan Peninsula. Through his conversations with Secretary Rollins and her team at USDA, if the Mexican government cooperates, there are enough male screwworm flies in production – 100 million per week – that the line can be held. The prognosis is good because Secretary Rollins announced on X that the Mexicans are going to allow planes into the region where the sterile flies are needed.
This eleventh-hour decision was made under the threat from Rollins to once again halt cattle from moving into the U.S. from Mexico at the end of April should they refuse.
“Yes, we do rely on Mexican feeder cattle coming in, and we have a great relationship, but we don’t have a relationship good enough to get over infection from New World Screwworms,” Woodall stated. “As far as NCBA has gone, we have made it very clear to the Secretary that we are going to support her decisions and her approach here because we have to keep this New World Screwworm from making it back into the United States.”
He clarified that the ultimate goal is to push the flies back into Central America and then into South America, where they have been, not just hold the line in Mexico. To do that, 200 million sterile male flies per week would need to be produced, and the singular facility in Panama cannot produce that many.
“NCBA is working with the Secretary to identify facilities in the U.S., specifically in Texas, that can be retrofitted to start producing the sterile males here in the U.S. as well,” Woodall shared.
He also told how the flies initially made it past the first barrier, the Darién Gap of the Panama Canal. “We found that the flies that we were manufacturing in this facility didn’t have a high libido, and we need them out there mating,” he said. “That is one of the problems that allowed them to get past the Isthmus of Panama and come up through Guatemala and ultimately into Mexico.”
He said the problem has been fixed in the sterile males currently being produced, and they are now doing their jobs.
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