The United States Department of Agriculture’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) is announcing $165 million in emergency funding from the Commodity Credit Corporation to protect U.S. livestock and other animals from New World screwworm (NWS) and to increase USDA’s ongoing efforts to control the spread of NWS in Mexico and Central America. NWS are fly larvae that infest living tissue of warm-blooded animals, causing infection.
Over the last two years, NWS has spread throughout Panama and into Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Honduras, and Guatemala. On November 22, 2024, the Chief Veterinary Officer of Mexico notified APHIS of a positive detection in southern Mexico, near the Guatemalan border.
The funding announced today bolsters USDA’s work in Mexico and Central America to stop the spread of NWS from moving north in Mexico, further protecting the United States through surveillance, animal health checkpoints and domestic preparedness, and by working with partners in Mexico and Central America to establish a barrier on the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, eradicate NWS from the affected areas, and reestablish the biological barrier in Panama.
“The current outbreaks in Central America demonstrate the need for USDA to increase its investment in NWS eradication and prevention,” said Jenny Lester Moffitt, USDA Under Secretary for Marketing and Regulatory Programs. “If NWS were to spread to the United States, it would result in significant economic losses and threats to animal health and welfare. This funding will allow for a coordinated emergency response to control the outbreak and prevent NWS from spreading to the United States.”