U.S. Border Still Closed to Mexican Cattle

Due to a parasite, the U.S. border is still closed to cattle coming out of Mexico. Rusty Halvorson has more details.

A destructive parasite found in livestock and other warm-blooded animals has been identified in Mexico. The New World screwworm was confirmed in a cow on Nov. 22, according to the USDA Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS).

“Things are looking as good as we could hope for, at the moment.”

Dr. Burke Healy with APHIS says the U.S. border is still closed to Mexican cattle.  However, work is underway to change that.

“So, we are in the process of developing a new protocol and a new process that Mexico can employ that will allow them to process those animals and help us minimize the risk of bringing in anything that would be infested with screwworm.”

Mexico and the U.S. are working together on setting up new livestock inspection sites, and taking other actions to eradicate the screwworm from Mexico.

“Mexico has put in a robust system.  They’ve got multiple checkpoints that protect their southern border that they utilized to find this particular case. We’re confident in their system, and again, working hand in hand with them to come up with a protocol to re-establish trade, as well as to work on that southern end of Mexico to try to establish a barrier down there, and work to push the fly out of the country.”

Healy says the U.S. could reopen its borders to Mexican cattle – most likely – “after the Christmas holidays and the January timeframe.”

The parasite was last eradicated from the United States in 1966.

Eradication efforts have continued in Central America, but the pest is considered endemic in Cuba, Haiti, the Dominican Republic and South America.