The United States is turning to an unlikely army of sterile flies and sniffer dogs to combat a re-emerging threat: the New World screwworm, a parasitic maggot that burrows into living flesh. British biosecurity experts, including those from the Pirbright Institute in Surrey, have been brought in to advise on the containment strategy. The infestation, confirmed last week in a single cow in Texas, has triggered a panic in the livestock industry.
The screwworm, eradicated from the US and Central America in the 1960s using the same sterile insect technique, has spread north from Panama. Ranchers fear the cost of quarantine and culling if the outbreak is not contained. The dogs, trained to detect the scent of infected wounds, will be deployed at checkpoints.
For workers in the meatpacking plants of the Midwest, already struggling with low wages and high prices of beef, this is another blow. The USDA has pledged emergency funds, but local farmers argue the real solution is better border biosecurity, not just a technical fix. The economy of the border states is fragile.
A full outbreak could mean lost jobs and higher supermarket prices. The use of British expertise is a sign of the global interconnectedness of this threat: the flies, the dogs, the trade routes linking our kitchens to Texas pastures.
