MEXICO CITY (Reuters) -Mexico’s agriculture ministry said on Monday another case of the flesh-eating screwworm parasite was detected in Nuevo Leon state, which borders the United States.
The infested calf had originated from the south of Mexico and was intercepted in the town of Montemorelos, south of Monterrey. None of the other 84 animals in the same shipment were found to be infested, the ministry said in a statement.
The screwworm larvae, which infest and can kill livestock if untreated, in the detected case were all found dead or dying as a result of mandatory treatments, including the antiparasitic ivermectin, the statement added.
Mexico’s agriculture ministry and sanitation agency Senasica recently told sector groups that ivermectin must be given 72 hours in advance of the movement of cattle under the supervision of staff from the International Regional Organization for Animal and Plant Health.
The screwworm outbreak has rattled the livestock sector and prompted the U.S. government to keep its border mostly closed to Mexican cattle imports since May.
“The condition in which the larvae arrived makes them unviable for reproduction, demonstrating the effectiveness of the inspection protocols at origin and destination applied to mitigate the risk of screwworm spreading,” the ministry said about the Montemorelos case.
The newly detected case was not related to a case of screwworm confirmed in Nuevo Leon state in September, the government said.
(Reporting by Cassandra Garrison; Editing by Kylie Madry)
