Parasite that eats animal — and human — hosts inside-out threatens US meats: USDA

Danger to our food supply is lurking at the US-Mexico border.

A terrifying parasite that hasn’t breached North America in over a century has reemerged in Mexico, the US Department of Agriculture has warned.

Health officials in Mexico alerted the US about a recent infestation of New World screwworm in a cow from Chiapas during an inspection near the Guatemala border.

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Screwworm flies prefer to nest on the periphery of fresh wounds in warm-blooded animals — as well as humans — depositing hundreds of eggs that hatch into flesh-eating maggots, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

If eggs hatch, the larvae can infest the bloodstream, a condition called myiasis, and begin to consume their host from the inside out.

The USDA is asking cattle producers to monitor livestock and pets closely, and promptly report their suspicions until further notice.

Myiasis is an extremely painful illness marked by the presence of maggots, a foul stench or lesions and sores that won’t seem to heal.

The USDA’s concerns come just a few decades after health agencies in the US, Mexico and other Central American countries spent $800 million to banish the screwworm. However, a spike in illegal cattle trafficking throughout these countries is putting consumers at risk of seeing the parasite’s resurgence.

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“With this latest find in Mexico, we will further intensify this work to protect American agriculture and reestablish the barrier in Central America,” said US Chief Veterinary Officer Dr. Rosemary Sifford, the Daily Mail reported on Friday.

Officials reported that the recent infestation began in Nicaragua, and traveled for two-and-a-half months through Honduras and Guatemala before it spread to livestock in southern Mexico.

“Evidence directly links illegal cattle trafficking to the screwworm’s resurgence,” said Jeremy Radachowsky, the Wildlife Conservation Society’s Regional Director for Mesoamerica, per the Daily. Mail. “By bypassing sanitary controls, often with stressed, undernourished and injured livestock, cattle smuggling creates the ideal conditions for transboundary transmission of diseases, including brucellosis, tuberculosis and parasites such as the screwworm.”

Such an infestation would be “catastrophic,” the WCS warned, taking decades to remove and costing the US billions of dollars — not to mention the risk of illness to individuals.

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The US has put a hold on Mexican beef exports amid further investigation while farmers implement stringent protocols to combat the bug, such as additional inspections, de-worming procedures and bathing livestock in pesticides to eliminate larvae before they infest.

Said the WS, “Only bold, coordinated international action can protect biodiversity, save billions in public spending and livestock losses and prevent a crisis from spiraling out of control.”