Farmscape for June 10, 2026

Pork producers near the Texas-Mexico border are being advised of a detection of New World screwworm and what to watch for.
Last week UDSA confirmed the first detection of New World screwworm in the U.S. since its eradication in 1966 in the umbilicus of a three-week-old calf close to the Texas-Mexico border.
Swine Health Information Center Executive Director Dr. Megan Niederwerder, on hand last week for World Pork Expo, says the situation is being closely monitored and producers need to be aware of what an infestation would look like.

Quote-Dr. Megan Niederwerder-Swine Health Information Center:
The New World screwworm is a parasitic fly.
It's one where the infestation only comes from the fly.
There's no animal-to-animal transmission, there's no human-to-human transmission, there's no animal-to-human transmission.
The parasitic fly can infest any warm-blooded animal.
This can be cattle, this can be sheep, goats, swine, dogs and cats and in rare cases it can be humans.
As we think about this, we want to ensure that the messaging is clear that this is not a food safety concern but we also need to maintain vigilance.
One of the aspects of that is knowing what the fly and the infestation looks like on farm.
The fly needs a wound.
It can be a very small wound, as small as a tick bite or an injection site and then the fly will land and deposit its eggs into the wound.
The eggs create larvae and the larvae can ingest any live tissue.
Imagine a wound that becomes deeper, doesn't heal normally, starts to have a smell to it because of the contamination, the animal may seem irritated, may lick at the wound, may head shake, may eventually become depressed, off feed.
These are all things that we want to keep a really close eye on.

Dr. Niederwerder encourages producers to think about the practices that might create wounds such as castration, ear tags, ear notching or tail docking.
Updates are available at swinehealth.org.
For more visit Farmscape.Ca.
Bruce Cochrane.

       *Farmscape is produced on behalf of North America’s pork producers