U.S. and Mexico reach agreement on screwworm, agriculture secretary says

Mexican cattle is prepared for transport in Laredo, Texas on May 3, 2011. (Eric Gay / AP Photo)

VERSAILLES, Ohio — The United States and Mexico reached an agreement on the handling of a damaging pest called New World screwworm, U.S. Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins said on Monday, after she threatened to limit cattle imports from south of the border.

Screwworm can infest livestock, wildlife and in rare cases, people. Maggots from screwworm flies burrow into the skin of living animals, causing serious and often fatal damage.

Rollins sent a letter to Mexican Agriculture Minister Julio Berdegue on Saturday, warning that the United States would restrict livestock imports from Mexico on April 30 if the Mexican government did not take further action against the pest.

Rollins said during a tour of an Ohio egg facility that she had spoken with Berdegue and that they came to an agreement on the issue.

“More will be released on that in the next few hours. It came to a good resolution,” she said.

Mexico has been working to respond to screwworm and is strengthening its efforts, President Claudia Sheinbaum said earlier on Monday.

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The U.S. typically imports more than a million cattle a year from Mexico.

Blocking imports would further tighten U.S. supplies that have dwindled to their lowest levels in decades, pushing up beef prices. U.S. ranchers have increasingly sent cattle to slaughter, instead of keeping them to reproduce, as drought has dried up pasture lands used for grazing in recent years.

Washington blocked Mexican cattle from late November to February after the discovery of screwworm in Mexico. The U.S. Department of Agriculture eradicated the pest from the United States in 1966 and wants to keep it out.

The National Cattlemen’s Beef Association said it recently met with officials at the Embassy of Mexico in Washington after receiving reports that Mexico had hampered U.S. efforts to fight screwworm south of the border.

“Screwworm is very destructive and could cost American producers millions of dollars a year if it reaches us,” said Buck Wehrbein, association president and a Nebraska cattleman.

(Reporting by P.J. Huffstutter in Versailles, Ohio; Writing by Leah Douglas in Washington and Tom Polansek in Chicago; Editing by Mark Porter and Sandra Maler)

Article written by P.J. Huffstutter, Leah Douglas and Tom Polansek