A flesh-eating screwworm outbreak is escalating in the United States, and the Department of Agriculture has scrambled an unorthodox counter-offensive: sterile flies and detector dogs. This is not a quaint agricultural problem. It is a biological breach, a systemic vulnerability in our food supply chain that hostile state actors would be remiss to ignore.
The strategic pivot here is obvious: the same logistical gaps that allow an invasive species to gain a foothold could be exploited by a targeted bio-weapon delivery. We are witnessing a rehearsal for a vector attack on our livestock industry. The use of sterile insect technique is sound science, but it belies a deeper intelligence failure.
Where was the early warning? The border biosecurity measures that should have detected this incursion in its nascent stage? We are playing catch-up, deploying dogs and flies as a tactical stopgap while the strategic threat deepens.
The real question is: what other biological agents are slipping through our porous defences?
