Flesh-Eating Fly Invasion Could Cause Devastation Across America

Flesh-Eating Fly Invasion Could Cause Devastation Across America : ScienceAlert

A flesh-eating parasitic fly is invading North and Central America.

sciencealert.com

The New World screwworm—a flesh-eating parasitic fly—has made a nasty comeback in Central America and is edging toward the U.S., threatening millions of cattle (and even people). Once eradicated by the sterile insect technique (SIT) in the 1980s, it’s now thought to be hitching rides on cattle movements, benefiting from warmer temperatures and maybe even outsmarting sterile males. Larvae burrow into wounds and feast on living tissue, causing huge economic losses and animal suffering.

Governments are scrambling to ramp up sterile-fly releases, boost surveillance and temporarily ban live animal imports from Mexico. The U.S. and Panama already churn out 100 million+ sterile pupae weekly, with plans to scale up in Mexico, but history shows that success will also depend on vets’ anti-parasitic treatments, farmer training and cooler weather—which climate change might complicate.