TEXAS \u2014 After years of anticipation, officials found New World screwworm in Texas, putting the agriculture industry on high alert.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is day two of really knowing that we have them back in Texas,\u201d said Seguin Cattle Company owner Bryan Luensmann.<\/p>\n
Luensmann is a third-generation Texas rancher, and Seguin Cattle Company is on its 48th year in business. He said ranchers in the area were just rebounding after the pandemic and years of drought.<\/p>\n
\u201cPeople are starting to keep their heifers back where possibly we can increase the herd numbers,\u201d Luensmann said. \u201cBut now that we\u2019ve got the screwworms problem, that might be a whole ‘nother problem of its own.\u201d<\/p>\n
The last time the livestock industry had to deal with screwworms in the early 70s, Luensmann was just a kid. He said treating the animals is labor intensive.<\/p>\n
\u201cEverybody\u2019s going to get nervous because everything that you do with cattle, they are processed to go to feed lots,” he said. “So, you are creating wounds on them that screwworms can get into.\u201d<\/p>\n
The New World screwworm was first detected in Mexico in the fall of 2024.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve kind of known it\u2019s a when is it going to happen, not an if it\u2019s going to happen,\u201d said Bain Wilson,\u00a0Ranchbot agricultural scientist.<\/p>\n
Wilson said people’s concerns about the flesh-eating parasite are valid.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf we don\u2019t catch it early, it can be so detrimental to animal health, relative to other parasites or pests that are out there,\u201d said Wilson.<\/p>\n
He suggests ranchers get proactive, inspecting their animals a few times a week.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey can catch any wounds or lesions caused by these flies early,\u201d Wilson said.<\/p>\n
But screwworms aren\u2019t just a livestock issue. They can infect any warm-blooded animal from ranch dogs to humans.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt can happen to your pets,\u201d Luensmann said. \u201cI mean if it bleeds, it\u2019s a host for a screwworm.\u201d<\/p>\n
Wilson said he wouldn\u2019t be surprised if more New World screwworm flies are found in the coming days. There’s a 12-mile quarantine area around La Pryor, Texas, where an infected calf was found this week.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe beef supply is safe,\u201d Wilson said. \u201cJust because we found it yesterday doesn\u2019t mean we should go avoid buying beef.\u201d<\/p>\n
Luensmann said it\u2019s still early, so no extra precautions are needed just yet. But he has faith in the country’s and state’s departments of agriculture to slow the spread.<\/p>\n
\u201cEverybody\u2019s just sitting on the sidelines watching right now to see what the gameplan is,\u201d Luensmann said.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"TEXAS \u2014 After years of anticipation, officials found New World screwworm in Texas, putting the agriculture industry on…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":325938,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[2389,21023,30721,2160,132,102,138,116,56,223,82,27,29,28,1569,2053,835],"class_list":["post-325937","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-texas","tag-agriculture","tag-amber-hughes","tag-app-agriculture","tag-app-top-stories","tag-austin","tag-dallas","tag-el-paso","tag-fort-worth","tag-houston","tag-news","tag-san-antonio","tag-texas","tag-texas-headlines","tag-texas-news","tag-texas-what-you-need-to-know","tag-top-stories","tag-vod"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/325937","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=325937"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/325937\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/325938"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=325937"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=325937"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=325937"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}