HYDE-SMITH BACKS BILL TO COMBAT SCREWWORM OUTBREAK
The STOP Screwworms Act would Boost Capacity to Stop Parasite from Reaching U.S. Livestock & Wildlife
WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senator Cindy Hyde-Smith (R-Miss) this week cosponsored bipartisan legislation to step up American efforts to ensure a resurgent infestation of the New World screwworm (NWS) does not reach the United States where the impacts to animal health and agriculture could be devastating.
The introduction of the Strengthening Tactics to Obstruct the Population of Screwworms (STOP Screwworms) Act (S.1751) comes on the heels of Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins closing the southern border to live imports of cattle, horses, and bison due to the growing number of cases of NWS in southern Mexico and Central America.
“The spread of the New World screwworm represents a serious threat to the U.S. cattle and livestock industry if left alone. The Trump administration recognizes the risk, and this legislation would give us the capacity to once again stop this pest before it infects our herds,” Hyde-Smith said.
The NWS is a parasitic fly whose larvae feed on livestock, wildlife, pets, occasionally birds, and in rare cases, people. Over the past two years, screwworm has spread north throughout Panama and into Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Honduras, Guatemala, El Salvador, Belize, and now Mexico.
The STOP Screwworms Act would authorize funds for and direct the U.S. Department of Agriculture to construct a new sterile fly production facility to combat the growing NWS outbreak. This facility would increase the capacity to fight the outbreak by producing more sterile male screwworm flies to be released into infested areas to curb the growth of the screwworm population.
The only NWS-specific Sterile Insect Technique (SIT) production facility is located in Panama. The sterile fly technique helped eradicate NWS from the United States in the 1960s and from Mexico in the 1990s.
S.1751 was introduced by U.S. Senator John Cornyn (R-Texas). Additional original cosponsors include U.S. Senators Ben Ray Luján (D-N.M.), Ted Cruz (R-Texas), and Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.). U.S. Representative Tony Gonzales (R-Texas) introduced a House companion bill (HR.3392). The American Farm Bureau Federation and other agriculture groups have endorsed the proposal.
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