After ranchers from the southeast and representatives of the National Agricultural Council (CNA) in Yucatán participated last Tuesday the 4th in a session of the Senate of the Republic – managed by Senator Luis Donaldo Colosio Riojasof Citizen Movement— to demand urgent measures against the expansion of the screwworm in the countrythe State government announced days later the implementation of a comprehensive management system to control the pest in the entity.
Through a statement issued on November 8, the state administration reported that, in coordination with the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (It fits) and the National Agri-Food Health, Safety and Quality Service (Senasica), a program will be launched that includes the use of traps, bait stations and entomopathogens, as well as surveillance tours in higher risk areas.
According to the official bulletin, the actions derive from several technical meetings with federal and state authorities, and seek to stop the advance of the cattle screwworm (Cochliomyia hominivorax), which has caused damage in various regions.
However, the initiative “Mexico Without Borer”, coordinated by Alberto Banuet Abhari, issued a position in which it described the actions as insufficient to eradicate or sustainably control the pest.
“According to the technical opinion of the specialists participating in the initiative, the use of traps, baits and entomopathogens serves mainly as support for surveillance and as a local measure, but does not modify the real size of the pest population,” the document states.
According to the text, the borer has a high reproductive capacity, so delete small groups of fliesor changes the general dynamics of the problem. Furthermore, the plague is not limited to livestock, but also affects wildlife—such as deer, coyotes, felines and monkeys—, which makes its control even more difficult.
“The only strategy that has historically worked to eradicate the screwworm in an entire country is the massive and sustained release of sterile flies. This was achieved in Mexico, Central America and the United States for decades,” the initiative points out.
In its positioning“Mexico Without Borer” reiterated its willingness to collaborate with the state government in addressing this health emergency and again requested a meeting with the Governor Joaquín Díaz Mena to present the progress made as well as the proposal to install a plant producing the sterile fly Cochliomyia hominivorax in Yucatán.
Specialists warned that until the sterile insect technique is adopted continuously and on a large scale, “the infestation will persist and may become chronic.”