Protecting the herds

By Greg Doering

If there’s one constant in the world, it’s every living thing is looking for food while avoiding becoming a meal. Farmers fight weeds, bacteria and fungus from the moment seeds go into the ground until the crop is harvested. Ranchers are on constant alert for predators waiting for the right opportunity to secure an easy meal.

In growing food, there’s a constant battle against pests, both seen and unseen. One of agriculture’s greatest successes over the past 75 years has come from managing these threats even if they’re not eliminated entirely.

The New World screwworm (NWS) is a parasitic pestilence of fly larvae that burrows into open wounds on livestock causing serious to fatal injury to infected animals. NWS was a scourge in the United States until 1966 when a government program used sterile flies to eradicate the breeding stock.