US confirms nation’s first travel-associated human screwworm case linked to Central American outbreak 

The US 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 US 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 business 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 US authorities has not confirmed any circumstances in animals this 12 months.

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

The authorities’s affirmation of a screwworm case comes simply over per week after US 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 might price the financial system in Texas, the largest US cattle-producing state, about $1.8 billion in livestock deaths, labor prices and drugs bills.

An government of the business group Beef Alliance despatched emails final week to about two dozen individuals 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 US 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, informed Reuters on Sunday that she was notified of a human case in Maryland inside 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 couple of 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, lots of of screwworm larvae use their sharp mouths to burrow by means of dwelling flesh, ultimately killing their host if left untreated.

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

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 lots of of larvae and completely disinfecting wounds. But infestations are sometimes survivable if handled early sufficient.

The emails from the Beef Alliance government mentioned that because of affected person privateness legal guidelines, there have been no different particulars obtainable in regards to the optimistic 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 business 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 optimistic 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 business government 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 report highs as a result of the US cattle herd is at its smallest measurement in seven many years.

A human case and the dearth of transparency round it might current a political problem for Rollins. The USDA has set traps and despatched mounted officers alongside the border, nevertheless 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 last main outbreak 50 years in the past – in June, saying that the power would take two to 3 years to come back 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 may 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 might produce a most of 100 million sterile screwworm flies every week. The USDA has estimated that 500 million flies would must 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 means of 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 south of the US border in Ixhuatlan de Madero, Veracruz, in July. The USDA instantly ordered the closure of livestock commerce by means of southern ports of entry, after beforehand halting imports in November and May.

The US sometimes imports over one million cattle from Mexico a 12 months to fatten in feedlots and course of into beef.

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