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Flesh-Eating Screwworm Found in Texas Calf, USDA Says
Female adult New World screwworm flies lay eggs in fresh wounds of warm-blooded animals.
A flesh-eating parasite that feeds on warm-blooded animals has been detected in the US for the first time since 1966.
Cochliomyia hominivorax, the New World screw-worm fly, or screw-worm for short, is a species of parasitic fly that is well known for the way in which its larvae (maggots) eat the living tissue.
A case was confirmed in a calf in La Pryor, Texas, a town about 30 miles (48 km) northeast of the US-Mexico border – a blow to US cattle ranchers who have been bracing for a domestic screwworm outbreak as the pest has advanced north through Mexico over the past year.
