By Julie Tomascik
Editor<\/p>\n
Federal and state animal health officials are intensifying efforts to contain and eradicate New World screwworm as additional cases are confirmed in South Texas and response operations expand across the region.<\/p>\n
Eight cases have now been confirmed in Texas since the first detection was announced June 3.<\/p>\n
U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins this week visited the site of the index case in Zavala County to meet with ranchers, animal health officials and agricultural stakeholders and discuss those efforts.<\/p>\n
TFB leaders joined representatives from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Texas Animal Health Commission (TAHC), Texas Parks and Wildlife Department, Gov. Greg Abbott\u2019s office and local ranchers for the roundtable.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was a very good candid conversation with her staff,\u201d Texas Farm Bureau District 10 State Director Stephen Bauer said. \u201cEverybody was very responsive and very attentive to the questions and concerns that we had.\u201d<\/p>\n
Bauer noted USDA\u2019s preparations before the Texas detection helped position federal and state agencies to respond quickly once the pest was confirmed.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re far ahead today of where we would\u2019ve been a year ago because of their efforts of working and pulling all the teams and stakeholders together,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Participants discussed prevention and treatment options available to livestock owners, animal movement protocols within infested zones, surveillance efforts and ongoing eradication strategies.<\/p>\n
Much of the conversation focused on movement restrictions and producer concerns about how those protocols are being implemented.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe main thing for producers is that you have to report,\u201d TFB Vice President Warren Cude said. \u201cThere\u2019s been misinformation going around that they\u2019re going to lock you down because of the quarantine, and really it\u2019s restricted animal movement. It\u2019s a way they can slow that migration of the fly northward.\u201d<\/p>\n
The movement restrictions include inspections for animals moving outside an infested zone. TAHC staff issue an animal movement certificate documenting treatment or prevention measures and official animal identification before movement occurs.<\/p>\n
\u201cAny of these areas around the infestation zones need to be watching livestock and wildlife closely,\u201d Cude said. \u201cThe quicker we identify an infestation, the quicker we can respond.\u201d<\/p>\n
The group also observed a sterile fly ground dispersal operation. Sterile fly releases are a cornerstone of the eradication strategy and were used successfully to eliminate New World screwworm from the United States in the 1960s.<\/p>\n
The meeting highlighted the importance of continued coordination among industry organizations and government agencies.<\/p>\n
\u201cAll of these people are working together toward an end goal of pushing this thing back and controlling New World screwworm,\u201d Bauer said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By Julie TomascikEditor Federal and state animal health officials are intensifying efforts to contain and eradicate New World…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":333738,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[115677,5877,27,29,28,93158],"class_list":["post-333737","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-texas","tag-la-pryor","tag-new-world-screwworm","tag-texas","tag-texas-headlines","tag-texas-news","tag-u-s-secretary-of-agriculture-brooke-rollins"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/333737","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=333737"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/333737\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/333738"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=333737"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=333737"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=333737"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}