New York state is implementing new restrictions on domestic animals entering the state in an effort to prevent the New World screwworm from impacting livestock and pets locally.
The state Department of Agriculture and Markets announced Tuesday that no domestic animal originating from an infested area will be allowed to enter the state until the area is declared free of screwworms, and the animal has been examined by an accredited veterinarian and found free of the infestation.
State officials say there have been no cases of the deadly flesh-eating parasite detected in New York, with 11 confirmed cases in the United States confined to livestock in Texas and one dog in New Mexico.
“New World Screwworm is serious and potentially fatal for livestock and pets, so we need to move quickly to ensure that New York is being proactive against this new threat to our agricultural industry and our companion animals,” State Agriculture Commissioner Richard A. Ball said in a statement.
The screwworm is a fly larva that eats living flesh instead of dead material. The flies lay their eggs in open wounds of animals like cattle, but wildlife, pets and occasionally even humans can be infested.
State officials are asking livestock producers and pet owners to be on the lookout for potential symptoms of New World screwworm in their animals, including:
Draining or expanding wounds
Maggots or eggs, especially around the navel, nose, and ears
Screwworm flies were an annual warm-weather scourge for cattle ranchers from at least the 1930s through the 1960s, when the U.S. eradicated the pest by breeding sterile male flies and dropping swarms of them from planes to mate with wild females.
The U.S. had been almost entirely rid of screwworms for 60 years, with scientists in North and Central America eventually driving it down to the containment zone in Panama. But in 2023, the flies emerged and began heading back north.
Texas’s first two screwworm cases in decades were discovered earlier this month in calves a few miles apart in the southern part of the state.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture has estimated it would spend over $1 billion on efforts to save cattle herds and other livestock.
The USDA says there is no concern about the nation’s food safety, and the country’s food supply remains safe. Officials say the current risk to animals and people is also very low.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.