Mexico Studies More Actions to Contain Screwworm Outbreak After Case Close to U.S. Border

By Cassandra Garrison

MEXICO CITY, Sept. 24 (Reuters) – Mexico is evaluating additional actions to deal with an outbreak of the flesh-eating screwworm parasite after a case of an infected animal was confirmed in the state of Nuevo Leon, which borders the United States, President Claudia Sheinbaum said Wednesday.

The has been no change in the expectation that the U.S. will reopen the border for livestock trade with Mexico before November, Sheinbaum said during her regular press conference.

“There has been no notification from the U.S. Department of Agriculture indicating any change in this situation,” Sheinbaum said in response to a journalist’s question about whether the new case, confirmed Sept. 21, would impact the expected timeline of the border reopening.

The infected animal was in a shipment of 100 animals originating from the Gulf Coast state of Veracruz, Mexico said this week.

A team from the U.S. Department of Agriculture recently visited Mexico to review the country’s response to the screwworm parasite, which has moved northward through Central America and Mexico, prompting the U.S. government to keep its border mostly closed to Mexican cattle imports since May.

Mexico was waiting for a decision by the U.S. based on that team’s report, Sheinbaum said.

A plant that will produce sterile flies, which reduce the reproducing population of the wild flies, is set to begin operations “very soon,” Sheinbaum added.

(Reporting by Cassandra Garrison and Aida Pelaez-Fernandez; Editing by Sarah Morland)