Note this distinction:
Unlike most other maggots, these maggots attack and consume healthy living tissue along with decaying tissue (hominivorax literally translates to "man-eating")
The "primary" screwworm, which can pierce skin, causes most livestock damage and is the focus of the eradication effort. Versus
The secondary screwworm, C. macellaria, is a flesh-eating fly whose larvae consume only necrotic tissue, either that of carrion or of an animal or human host (myiasis). This important distinction between C. macellaria and C. hominivorax was not understood for much of medical history; myiasis of humans and animals was viewed as universally disastrous. However, as medical understanding of the process of tissue breakdown and infection progressed, it was observed that wounds with specific types of maggot infestation actually had a decreased severity and duration of infection. This progressed to the point where C. macellaria larvae were being applied in some cases as surgical maggots. However, the negative connotation surrounding the word “screwworm” has persisted, and the largely harmless secondary screwworms are often blamed for myiasitic attacks for which primary screwworms are actually responsible.
As often, success of an eradication program depends on staying the course.
One says it is working great. The others says it was started way too late, and it is still blocked by buerocrats.
https://asm.org/articles/2025/september/new-word-screwworm-r...
There's currently only one plant in Panama running the sterile fly program, but both Mexico and the US are opening new plants to handle the issue.
"The U.S. Department of Agriculture is constructing a new $750 million facility nearby to breed sterile flies, though U.S. Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins said it won’t be completed until late 2027. In the meantime, the agency is investing $21 million to transform a fruit fly breeding center in far southern Mexico into a screwworm fly production site, with operations set to begin this summer."
https://www.statesman.com/news/article/texas-possible-new-wo...
They should have checked every fly for their immigration status!
(And if it got screwed up, I'd say it's much more likely to have been an accidental result of misguided austerity measures like DOGE.)
