He advance of the screwworm without control in national territory is already equivalent to the fight against foot and mouth disease from 1945 to 1954 and there is no deployment of resources, personnel or a frontal eradication of this health problem, considered the rancher and coordinator of the initiative. “Mexico Without Borredor”, Alberto Banuet Abhari.
The interviewee, ranchers from the southeast and representatives of the CNational Agricultural Council in Yucatan They participated last Tuesday in a session of the Senate of the Republic, for management of Senator Luis Donaldo Colosio Riojas, of Movimiento Ciudadanowhere they demanded urgent actions against the expansion of the screwworm in the country.
In addition, they pointed out the lack of response from the State government to this plague, the abandonment of the southeastern region in the face of this problem and demanded the construction of a plant producing sterile flies, with advice from specialists from the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine of the Autonomous University of Yucatán.
Banuet Abhari expanded on his comments on this topic in an interview with the Diary and stressed that the foot and mouth disease of previous decades generated a global alert, caused the 6% decrease in the national livestock herd, including cattle and pigs; there were around 1 million animals died from this cause and the federal government allocated approximately 750 million dollars for its eradication from 1945 to 1954.
Without interest from the authorities
The appearance of two massive outbreaks of the screwworm in national territory also led 750 million dollars at that timebut now that we have the problem again Its impact is much greater, but he does not see the same interest from the authorities in eradicating it, as with foot and mouth disease.
“The screwworm does not generate the panic of foot and mouth disease, but it is a pest that consumes much more money because it is an everyday issue and it is a problem that is addressed drop by drop,” said the rancher.
“In the two screwworm episodes, we have already reached the cost that foot-and-mouth disease had at that time. The screwworm has a rhythm, it grows every day, and its control is much more complicatedas more violent because it generates chronic wounds, mortality, commercial restrictions and a continuous drainage of the infected animal,” he said.
“The Americans have imposed an embargo on northern calves and this represents more or less 4.6 million dollars a day, not of losses, but of money that does not enter Mexico”, he noted.
Investment against screwworm
Banuet Abhari recalled that the first time the screwworm was found in Mexico 750,000 million pesos were required, 58,000 flight hours in the small plane to disperse sterile fliesthe production and release of 250,000 million sterile flies and 2,031 employees worked at that time when the program ended.
“Today we do not even have that amount of resources or personnel,” he emphasized.
“What this leaves us with is a very clear lesson: we must invest in the sterile insect plant because in a fraction of time Mexico can lose its livestock health status.”
The interviewee also indicated that the first time the screwworm emerged In Mexico, 286,752 cases were reported. However, in this year, the behavior is totally different because people is not reporting animals infected with worms for many reasons.
He also said that it is alarming that the Worm-producing fly (Cochliomyia hominivorax) in the Yucatan Peninsula because it could lose both animals and money due to the high investment in treatments and the lack of marketing with the United States and other entities in the country.
Why did we become infected with screwworm again when the Mexican-American Commission program ended?
The plant producing sterile flies from Mexico that nullified the worm producers was 80 percent owned by the Americans and was taken to Panamasaid.
In that Central American country, the plant was put to work under the same scheme as Mexico through the Copec organization, which exists to this day and produces around 100 million flies a week.
“In 2006, Copec managed to eradicate the screwworm from the seven Central American countries, but from that year on the work model changed and instead of being in permanent eradication mode, it dedicated itself to containment and that is why the contamination of the screwworm returned, starting with Panama and covering the other countries, mainly because Nicaragua did not allow the incursion of the eradication teams because it alleged that it was a political spy strategy.”
Reconquista
He revealed that the ranchers knew Since June 2024, the screwworm had been reconquering its territory quickly and invaded Central America to Mexico. It was reported to the health authorities and although Mexico is not guilty of this infestation, He was responsible for applying the necessary measures because it was already known that the screwworm was coming and he did nothing.
“And perhaps it did nothing against the screwworm because during those months Mexico and the United States were involved in their presidential electoral processes.”
How is the spread of screwworm in the Southeast?
“It is a scenario with very bad news,” he responded.
“The The bad news is that the Mexican authorities have only one objective: open the northern border for the export of calves. At least that’s what they appear to be because they don’t talk about any other livestock subsector that they could be worried about. So, their only concern, their work is focused on opening the northern border.
“The United States Secretary of Agriculture, Brooke Rollins, was in Mexico and told President Claudia Sheinbaum that they were not going to open the border because they continue the expansion of the screwworm.
“We Yucatecan ranchers are not concerned about the positioning of the United States government, what worries us is that the southeast of the country is always at the bottom of federal programs,” he reiterated.
“It is proven, not only in rural programs, but in practically all of them. The entire southeastern part and the peninsula are always last for the federal government.”
Banuet Abhari He highlighted that Yucatán has a huge, very professional livestock industry and many thousands of families still live off the countryside.either. If the Yucatecans do not protect the productive plant, no one else will do so.
Precisely this reason made them seek the support of Uady because they know that their veterinary specialists have experience and research and after seeing the laboratory producing sterile mosquitoes, which they already produce, a slight hope arose that the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine could produce sterile flies for the control and eradication of the fly that lays the larvae of the screwworm. (To be continued).