Preparing to Deal With New World Screwworm: The Next Generation

By Abbey Canon

Biosecurity measures at this time should be monitoring and education; know which pigs have open wounds and monitor if they are not healing.

In 1976, some livestock producers in the Southwest were still struggling with infestations of New World screwworm on their farms, despite a USDA eradication program that had almost completely driven the parasite south out of the United States several years earlier. That year, Texas producers reported about 1.5 million cattle and 333,000 sheep and goats had been infested with NWS larvae.