US to dump billions of flies over Mexico in $30m fight against flesh-eating maggots
US to dump billions of flies over Mexico in $30m fight against flesh-eating maggots
The US has reportedly drawn up plans to breed billions of flies over Mexico in an attempt to eradicate a vicious variety of flesh-eating maggot.
The move comes as the New World Screwworm fly larvae continues to cause chaos as it infiltrates the US beef industry, affecting wider wildlife, pets and, in rare cases, humans.
According to scientists, the new batches of male sterilised maggots will be dumped over the South American nation and the US state of Texas in a bid to eradicate the vicious variety of flesh-eating larvae.
The US Department of Agriculture is said the male flies, which measure slightly larger than the average housefly, will be sterilised with radiation before being released.
The strategy, set out by scientists, will force the female screwworms to breed with the newly sterilised males.
The flesh-eating variety of the screwworm maggots were eradicated from the US in 1966, but the creatures appear to me making a comeback.
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The article doesn't mention why this is suddenly an issue. They used to have a narrow choke point around Panama where they did this routinely to keep these things from ever getting into the US, but that was cut as part of the "government efficiency" fiasco, so now it's a widespread, growing, problem. Really the perfect example of why wildly cutting government spending without thought is not an 'efficient' approach to reducing spending.
There is also a picture of a screw-worm infected dog in the article, if you want to see what your republican sponsored future will be
It's worth noting that the current outbreak that's occurring north of Panama started prior to DOGE doing its bullshit. Apparently it began in 2022.
Worth noting that people still have no idea how much damage Trump and Republicans did the first go around.
I'm not saying they didn't do damage, but did they cut funding for this? There doesn't seem to be any evidence of that. There was an outbreak in Florida in 2016 before the 2022 outbreak
No concrete reason for the northward spread has been given, and Dr. Chancey said it is likely “multifactorial.” She noted that surveillance of NWS is limited in hard-to-reach areas across Central America, and livestock often are transported through unmonitored or insufficient checkpoints.
I'm not talking about who did what.
I'm talking about people who don't know what damage was done and the extent.
If they knew, and actually cared, things would not be as bad and getting worse.
"MAGAts for maggots"
That dog pic is actually a little tame. I've seen some nightmare inducing pics of screwworm infections.
but that was cut as part of the "government efficiency" fiasco
I hate Elon, Trump, DOGE, and MAGA as much as the next comrade, but I have seen no evidence this is the case. Where did you get this from?
Your comment made me think again at my sources. Re-researching starting with the link from @CaptainPedantic@lemmy.world and eventually through this Atlantic article it seems as though pandemic supply chain issues finally caught up to the fly factory.
But as @evenglow@lemmy.world said, I'd still chalk that up as first term damage, and Trump and DOGE should get screwworms.
But right after it mentions supply chain issues, it talks about unauthorized migration through the Darien Gap and the illegal cattle trade in Central America. Just saying, criticize where it's due, and Trump's due criticism for almost everything he's done, but this problem is complex and exists independently of him and independently of the United States
I read something different re: the cause.
It’s difficult to say how they made it past the Darien Gap, but there are several possibilities, Earl said. Monitoring and surveillance for screwworm was relaxed due to the COVID-19 pandemic several years ago, and an increase in illegal cattle trafficking in the region might also be helping to spread animals infected with maggots. The increase in human migration northward may also be playing a role, Earl said.