New York, June 10, 2026 – Following confirmation by USDA of New World screwworm infestations in cattle, a goat, and a dog in the United States, the following statement was released by Dr. Jeremy Radachowsky, Wildlife Conservation Society Regional Director for Mesoamerica and the Caribbean:

“New World screwworm’s arrival to Texas and New Mexico should end the blame game and force a hard look at the root cause of the regional crisis: illegal and unregulated cattle movement through Central America and Mexico. There are currently six confirmed cases of screwworm in the US; 5 reported cases in Texas and one in New Mexico."

“Sterile fly releases, traps, quarantines, inspections, and veterinary treatments are essential. But they will not be enough if governments leave open the illicit cattle corridors that move wounded, stressed, and potentially infested animals across borders and around sanitary controls. We cannot sterilize our way out of a trafficking pipeline.

“WCS warned in November 2024 that screwworm hotspots were closely mirroring known cattle-smuggling routes from Nicaragua through Honduras and Guatemala into Mexico. These routes do not exist in isolation. They are tied to corruption, land grabbing, deforestation, money laundering, and organized criminal economies that use cattle to occupy protected areas, launder profits, and penetrate legitimate beef supply chains.

“This is not simply a US border problem, a Mexico problem, or a Central American problem. It is a regional biosecurity failure with consequences for ranchers, rural economies, wildlife, public health, food security, and taxpayers. The same illicit cattle economy destroying forests and Indigenous territories in Mesoamerica is now helping move a dangerous animal-health threat toward North America’s livestock systems and wildlife.

“The United States, Mexico, and Central American governments should urgently align around one regional objective: stop illegal cattle trafficking as a core screwworm-control measure. That means targeted enforcement at known smuggling crossings; real-time animal-movement intelligence; stronger traceability from birth to slaughter; penalties for laundering illegal cattle into legal markets; and sustained investment in community and protected-area monitoring and management where these routes begin.

“The technical response must continue. But eradication will fail if the parasite is repeatedly reintroduced through illegal cattle movement. The way to protect livestock, wildlife, rural livelihoods, and taxpayers is to cut off the trafficking routes that allowed this crisis to move so fast and so far.”

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