😱:Flesh-eating screwworm has reached the US — a comeback driven by organized crime
📍 Ghana • by Ebenezer Arku • Jun 11, 2026
Larvae of the screwworm fly that were extracted from cows lie at an inspection center of Honduras' Secretary of Agriculture and Livestock, in Valle de Jamastran, Honduras, May 21, 2025.
Larvae of the screwworm fly that were extracted from cows lie at an inspection center of Honduras' Secretary of Agriculture and Livestock, in Valle de Jamastran, Honduras, May 21, 2025. Fredy Rodriguez/Reuters
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When the US Department of Agriculture reported last week that it detected a case of New World screwworm in a Texas calf, ecologist Jeremy Radachowsky was not surprised.
Radachowsky, the Mesoamerica and Western Caribbean director for the Wildlife Conservation Society, had long warned of the resurgence of the screwworm fly: a species with a life cycle that sounds like the plot of “Alien.”
Screwworms incubate exclusively in the wounds or orifices of warm-blooded animals such as cows, dogs, horses and human beings. The parasite had previously been eradicated in North and Central America through a multimillion-dollar, decades-long program of fly sterilization led by the United States.
But Radachowsky and other researchers have warned for years that illegal cattle smuggling has quickened the return of screwworm to its ceded territory in Central America. It has since spread northward to Mexico, Texas and, as of this week, New Mexico.
Larvae of the screwworm fly that were extracted from cows lie at an inspection center of Honduras' Secretary of Agriculture and Livestock, in Valle de Jamastran, Honduras, May 21, 2025. Fredy Rodriguez/Reuters
Follow
When the US Department of Agriculture reported last week that it detected a case of New World screwworm in a Texas calf, ecologist Jeremy Radachowsky was not surprised.
Radachowsky, the Mesoamerica and Western Caribbean director for the Wildlife Conservation Society, had long warned of the resurgence of the screwworm fly: a species with a life cycle that sounds like the plot of “Alien.”
Screwworms incubate exclusively in the wounds or orifices of warm-blooded animals such as cows, dogs, horses and human beings. The parasite had previously been eradicated in North and Central America through a multimillion-dollar, decades-long program of fly sterilization led by the United States.
But Radachowsky and other researchers have warned for years that illegal cattle smuggling has quickened the return of screwworm to its ceded territory in Central America. It has since spread northward to Mexico, Texas and, as of this week, New Mexico.
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