Unique-U.S. confirms nation’s first travel-associated human screwworm case linked to Central American outbreak

By Cassandra Garrison, Tom Polansek and Leah Douglas

BUENOS AIRES/CHICAGO/WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services on Sunday reported the primary human case within the United States of travel-associated New World screwworm, a flesh-eating parasite, from an outbreak-affected nation.

The case, investigated by the Maryland Department of Health and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, was confirmed by the CDC as New World screwworm on August 4, and concerned a affected person who returned from journey to El Salvador, HHS spokesman Andrew G. Nixon mentioned in an electronic mail to Reuters.

Earlier, Reuters reported that beef trade sources mentioned final week that the CDC had confirmed a case of New World screwworm in an individual in Maryland who had traveled to the United States from Guatemala.

Nixon didn’t handle the discrepancy on the supply of the human case.

“The risk to public health in the United States from this introduction is very low,” he mentioned.

The U.S. authorities has not confirmed any circumstances in animals this yr.

The differing accounts from the U.S. authorities and trade sources on the human case are prone to additional rattle an trade of cattle ranchers, beef producers and livestock merchants already on excessive alert for potential U.S. infestations as screwworm has moved northward from Central America and southern Mexico.

The authorities’s affirmation of a screwworm case comes simply over every week after U.S. Department of Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins traveled to Texas to announce plans to construct a sterile fly facility there as a part of efforts to fight the pest.

The USDA has estimated a screwworm outbreak may value the economic system in Texas, the largest U.S. cattle-producing state, about $1.8 billion in livestock deaths, labor prices and medicine bills.

An govt of the trade group Beef Alliance despatched emails final week to about two dozen folks within the livestock and beef sectors, informing them that the CDC had confirmed a human case of screwworm in Maryland in an individual who had traveled to the U.S. from Guatemala, in keeping with a supply, who requested to not be recognized, and who shared the contents of the emails with Reuters.

Beth Thompson, South Dakota’s state veterinarian, instructed Reuters on Sunday that she was notified of a human case in Maryland throughout the final week by an individual with direct data of it. CDC deferred inquiries to Maryland on a name with state animal well being officers, Thompson mentioned. “We found out via other routes and then had to go to CDC to tell us what was going on,” she mentioned. “They weren’t forthcoming at all. They turned it back over to the state to confirm anything that had happened or what had been found in this traveler.”

Another supply mentioned that state veterinarians had realized a few human case in Maryland throughout a name final week with the CDC. A Maryland state authorities official additionally confirmed a case.

A spokesperson for the Maryland Department of Health didn’t instantly reply to requests for remark.

WHAT ARE SCREWWORMS? Screwworms are parasitic flies whose females lay eggs in wounds on any warm-blooded animal. Once the eggs hatch, a whole bunch of screwworm larvae use their sharp mouths to burrow by dwelling flesh, ultimately killing their host if left untreated.

The maggots’ feeding is much like a screw being pushed into wooden, giving the pests their title.

Screwworms might be devastating in cattle and wildlife, and infrequently infest people, although an infestation in both an animal or an individual might be deadly.

Treatment is onerous, and entails eradicating a whole bunch of larvae and totally disinfecting wounds. But infestations are usually survivable if handled early sufficient.

The emails from the Beef Alliance govt mentioned that attributable to affected person privateness legal guidelines, there have been no different particulars obtainable in regards to the constructive human case of screwworm. The particular person was handled and prevention measures had been carried out within the state, the e-mail mentioned.

A livestock economist at Texas A&M University was requested to organize a report for Rollins on the impacts to trade of the border closure to Mexican cattle, in keeping with the emails, a measure that has largely been in impact since November to forestall the arrival of screwworm to the United States.

The CDC was required to report the constructive New World screwworm case to each Maryland well being officers and the Maryland state veterinarian, one of many emails mentioned, including that the CDC additionally notified different agriculture stakeholders.

“We remain hopeful that, since awareness is currently limited to industry representatives and state veterinarians, the likelihood of a positive case being leaked is low, minimizing market impact,” the meat trade govt wrote.

A consultant for the Beef Alliance didn’t reply to requests for remark.

IMPACT ON BEEF AND CATTLE FUTURES

Livestock merchants and beef producers have been on edge in regards to the potential for circumstances in cattle as costs have already hit file highs as a result of the U.S. cattle herd is at its smallest measurement in seven many years.

A human case and the shortage of transparency round it may current a political problem for Rollins. The USDA has set traps and despatched mounted officers alongside the border, however it has confronted criticism from some cattle producers and market analysts for not appearing sooner to pursue elevated fly manufacturing.

Rollins first introduced plans for a sterile fly facility at Moore Air Force Base in Edinburg, Texas – close to the place a manufacturing facility to fight screwworm operated over the past main outbreak 50 years in the past – in June, saying that the ability would take two to 3 years to return on-line. A spokesperson for the USDA didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark. Mexico has additionally taken efforts to restrict the unfold of the pest, which might kill livestock inside weeks if not handled. The Mexican authorities mentioned in July that it began to construct a $51 million sterile fly manufacturing facility within the nation’s south.

The sole working plant is in Panama City and may produce a most of 100 million sterile screwworm flies every week. The USDA has estimated that 500 million flies would have to be launched weekly to push the fly again to the Darien Gap, the stretch of rainforest between Panama and Colombia.

Screwworms have been touring north by Mexico from Central America since 2023. They are endemic in Cuba, Haiti, the Dominican Republic and international locations in South America, in keeping with the USDA.

Mexico reported a brand new case about 370 miles (595 km) south of the U.S. border in Ixhuatlan de Madero, Veracruz, in July. The USDA instantly ordered the closure of livestock commerce by southern ports of entry, after beforehand halting imports in November and May.

The U.S. usually imports over 1,000,000 cattle from Mexico a yr to fatten in feedlots and course of into beef.

Screwworms had been eradicated from the United States within the Sixties when researchers started releasing huge numbers of sterilized male screwworm flies that mate with wild feminine screwworms to provide infertile eggs.

(Reporting by Cassandra Garrison in Buenos Aires, Tom Polansek in Chicago and Leah Douglas in Washington. Additional reporting by Heather Schlitz in Chicago and Jarrett Renshaw in Washington. Editing by Emily Schmall, Diane Craft and Sonali Paul)