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The United States and Mexico are set to gradually reopen their shared border to cattle imports from July, following a two-month suspension prompted by concerns over the northward spread of the screwworm.
US Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins and Mexico's Secretary of Agriculture and Rural Development, Julio Berdegué, confirmed the decision on Monday, with the border set to begin opening on July 7.
This followed a previous restriction on Mexican cattle shipments in late November due to the pest's detection, which was lifted in February after protocols were established for animal evaluation prior to entry.
Secretary Rollins announced via X that "key progress" had been made in combating the pest.
She highlighted that more than 100 million sterile flies are now being dispersed weekly, and crucially, there has been no northward spread of the screwworm in eight weeks.
Mr Berdegué confirmed his participation in a virtual meeting with Secretary Rollins on Monday, where the July 7 reopening date was agreed upon.
Both officials commended the close cooperation between their respective governments in addressing the issue.
The US-Mexico border announcement in May came after the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) said the pest had been detected in Oaxaca and Veracruz, about 700 miles from the US border.
The screwworm is a larva of the Cochliomyia hominivorax fly that can invade the tissues of any warm-blooded animal, including humans. The parasite enters the skin, causing serious and life-threatening damage and lesions.
Attempts to eradicate the threat posed by the parasitic flies date back decades. The most successful effort in the 1960s and early 1970s involved releasing hundreds of millions of sterile adult flies that would mate with the females, ultimately preventing them from laying viable eggs.
But there was nevertheless a major outbreak in Texas in 1976 that affected more than 1.4 million cattle and hundreds of thousands of sheep and goats.
USDA analysis suggests that if such an outbreak were to happen again, it would cost the state’s economy $1.8 billion.
