The Autonomous University of Yucatán (Uady) opened a small ray of hope for local ranchers in their desperate fight against the Cochliomyia hominivorax fly, which causes the screwworm, because its researchers are capable of producing sterile flies to control this pest.
Alberto Banuet Abhari, rancher and coordinator of the “Mexico Sin Borrenador” initiative, witnessed the work of researchers from the Uady Faculty of Veterinary Medicine in the production of sterile mosquitoes to combat the dengue-transmitting mosquito. And there his face lit up with joy, because the veterinary researchers informed him that they could also produce sterile flies in their laboratory.
“Uady has a very interesting laboratory, it is very well managed with people with a lot of experience, a lot of moral quality and with enormous openness for this type of public health control,” said the interviewee.
“We met with the rector (Carlos Alberto Estrada Pinto) and he offered a plan to build a new plant or another wing of the same laboratory for sterile flies.”
Is it feasible then for Yucatan to have a fly plant? he was asked.
“Of course it is feasible. The land is already there, Uady has the technology and the knowledge, there would be a lack of political will because it is an expensive infrastructure,” he responded.
“We delivered a letter to President Claudia Sheinbaum (Pardo) on her last visit to the State, when she left an event. She received it, read it personally and ordered the Secretary of Agriculture to come to verify everything related to the plant, but the general director of Senasica (National Health, Safety and Quality Service) came and simply concluded that it could not be done.”
“Reluctantly, a man from the Ministry of Agriculture (and Rural Development) came to explain to us why it was not possible, when that was not the instruction, President Sheinbaum’s instruction, as we heard it, is to go to Yucatan to see how you can plant a sterile fly plant.”
Did they disobey the presidential instruction?
“Yes, it seems that way. And here we did not know how to defend our position, that is what we lacked before the general director of Senasica,” admitted the former federal delegate of the defunct Secretariat of Agriculture and Hydraulic Resources (SARH).
“We have to keep walking because we cannot give up until we achieve control and eradication of the screwworm. We want to exhaust all avenues so that they listen to us, pay attention to us and know that a sterile fly production plant needs to be installed in Yucatán because it has a very important livestock sector, both pigs and cattle.”
Banuet Abhari stated that they would like the State government to listen to them, for Governor Joaquín Díaz Mena to give them an audience so that he can learn first-hand about the good possibilities that Yucatán has for the installation of this plant with scientific support from Uady. However, to date it has not been granted a hearing, despite numerous requests made to government offices.
“For us it is important that the governor finds out about this joint project between ranchers and Uady,” he reiterated.
“We want to explain what we are doing, what the strategy is so that the state government adopts it, we don’t even want to do it ourselves or give us the credit, but we do want them to build the plant because it is the only way to eradicate the fly that causes the screwworm, there are no other methods.”
Is it difficult to talk to the governor?
“We spoke with him twice informally and quickly at fairs, but it is not the same as giving us an audience so that we can explain in detail what we are doing. I hope he finds out from the newspaper and receives us in his office.”
How many attempts have you made?
“Well, I don’t remember, but there are some of them,” he said.
But the governor is a rancher, he should know the problem, right?
“He listens carefully, but we have not been able to set up a hearing and explain to him what strategy we should follow together,” he revealed.
“If we were to achieve that hearing and if we were able to explain what strategy we should follow, I think it could be achieved very quickly because it has communication with the federal authorities.”
In seeking support for the sterile fly plant and the eradication of the screwworm in the State, the ranchers turned to the Citizen Movement senator, Luis Donaldo Colosio Riojas, who listened to them, integrated them into legislative work and led a demand for one of the sterile fly plants scheduled in the country to be in Yucatán.
“Although Senator Colosio (Riojas) is not part of the Livestock Commission, he was very interested in the issue, he attracted our concern and we worked with him for almost a month to support the request for the plant in Yucatán that would benefit the Yucatán Peninsula,” he said.
“He proposed five sterile fly plants in the national territory and the first would be the one in Yucatán, with four smaller modular plants in strategic locations. These would be cheaper and more efficient than the one in Metapa, Chiapas. In Metapa they are rehabilitating the plant, they say it will be ready in July 2026, but we have doubts that this will be the case.”
He explained that the Chiapas plant is enormous and will only produce 100 million flies a week, which is not enough for rapid progress throughout the national territory. In addition, there is a risk that if the screwworm fly reaches the United States, all of Metapa’s sterile flies will go to American territory because they are the main investors in the Chiapas plant.
“The sterile flies they produce in Panama are the ones that are coming to Mexico today. If the screwworm arrives in Texas, they will leave us without flies in the United States and we will have to live with the worm for a long time to come, which is why the plants proposed by Senator Colosio (Riojas) are urgently needed.
“As you already know that the only way to eradicate the screwworm fly is through the sterile fly, because once the female copulates they leave her sterile, the possible Yucatan plant could produce 200 million sterile flies per week, the same insects that would be released in the three states of the Yucatan Peninsula (Quintana Roo, Campeche and Yucatán) and the borders with Central America and Tabasco.”
Another proposal made to Senator Colosio Riojas was that the Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources (Semarnat) allocate human, material and economic resources to combat the screwworm fly, since livestock farming is also fauna that must be taken care of.
Likewise, they demanded the suspension of beef imported from Brazil for the Package Against Inflation and High Costs (Pacic) program, given that the López Obrador government signed an agreement to lower the price of the basic basket in Mexico, although it has been a failure because basic foods remain more expensive than ever, while merchants bring 80,000 tons of uncertified or unclassified meat from Brazil, to the detriment of Mexico’s internal trade.
“That program was invented to lower the cost of food in the basic basket, but it has not worked, beef today has the highest price we have ever had in history,” he stressed.
“No one understands how those 80,000 tons enter the country, how American meat enters, cattle from Central America enter, we produce and yet we have these high prices. This Pacic issue is an interesting topic.” (To be continued).— Joaquín Chan Caamal
They propose strategy
Alberto Banuet Abhari requests that the government listen to the strategy against the worm.
Vital hearing
“If we achieved that hearing (with Governor Joaquín Díaz Mena) and if we managed to explain what strategy we should follow, I think it could be achieved very quickly because it has communication with the federal authorities,” the rancher reiterated.
Approach
Another proposal that the ranchers made to Senator Donaldo Colosio Riojas was that Semarnat allocate human, material and economic resources to combat the screwworm fly, since livestock farming is also fauna that must be taken care of.