Parasite Problems

I’m not talking about the politicians, despite the fact that it is they who have caused this mess. They aren’t going to be the ones out there dealing with yet another ick factor in agriculture. As much as I would like to blame the ineptitude in Washington DC, the reality is going to land squarely at the feet of your farmers. It’s not yet time to run screaming through the streets like the 1950s classic The Blob, and they certainly aren’t the size of anything as frightening as you’d find in Jurassic Park, but the New World screwworm has the potential to be quite irritating, both physically and financially.

Most often this blog begins with questions asked on Sunday mornings. The subject matter follows the leading story in the news cycle with the potential to impact our food system. Cycle back through the years of Dishing the Dirt and you will find an assortment of my topics that have landed on your table in one way or another. A few weeks ago, the question of the day from both patrons and vendors was the New World Screwworm (Cochliomyia hominivorax).

I am a firm believer in that it takes certain fortitude to be a farmer. Stick in this business long enough and you will find it is one thing after another. I have lived through an assortment of agricultural nightmares, including the Glassy Wing Sharpshooters, fruit flies, and Emerald Ash Borer Beetles. There has been plum pox and huanglongbing, both devastating diseases in fruit crops from which I have watched fellow farmers lose a lifetime of work.

Trust me, you do not have to be a livestock farmer to deal with infections and infestations. But I think livestock farmers have it far worse when it comes to maladies that give you a gut reaction and not in a good way. But this is nothing new for anyone who raises livestock. Live around animals long enough and eventually, you are going to come across fly eggs and their larvae once they hatch. {I promised myself I would not use the M word}

Flies are drawn to odiferous, damp environments in which to procreate. With over 150,000 distinct species of insects that are designated true flies, you learn how each has specific tastes, mostly manure and rotten stuff. The New World Screwworm’s favorite nursery is an open wound in mammals. Unlike birds who lay their eggs in a nest and then feed their young, flies lay their eggs directly onto the nutrients that will feed their young as they pupate into maturity. Cattle just happened to be the favorite meal for screwworms, but from the reporting of species contracting infections it looks that they are working on a buffet of animals, including dogs and goats.

When popular media sources make this latest threat out to be something feared, most of the farmers I know have just shrugged their shoulders and said one more thing to deal with. And that’s what we do; deal with it. It’s just one in a long list, a plethora of pestilence that comes with a territory of modern agriculture. Farmers who choose chemical-free and certified organic practices are increasingly frustrated by ongoing threats that have the potential to impact their philosophy and certifications. When an invasive pest begins harming a billion-dollar industry, neither the state nor federal agricultural agencies are going to consider a patchwork approach to eradication. There is mass aerial spraying of pesticides, there is required testing and mandatory culling for highly contagious, pathogenic diseases. These are processes that the average eater never hears about unless there is a potential problem, but farmers deal with daily. Those are just the big ones.  There is an onslaught of everything from bacteria to bugs that are just trying to catch a meal and reproduce at the expense of our crops. There is an ongoing roster of knowledge as to which pests we are allowed to control and which predators are protected. I am most vigilant over anything zoonotic, meaning it can infect me as well. There is a whole list, including rabies, avian influenza, swine, flu, sore mouth, pink eye, bots, and ringworm. Now I have to worry about screwworm.

But what really tweaks me to the barricades about this situation is that we had the problem solved for decades and some little punk programmer who’s never picked up an egg in his life decided that a sterile male fly program wasn’t worth the money. My suggestion is to employ the DOGE dingdongs to literally help clean up this mess. I would like to see one of those keyboard jockeys wrestle a calf while cleaning out unwanted residents throwing a picnic in its umbilical wound. I bet they’ll think twice about messing with taxpayer (also eaters) funded programs that are critical to the continuity and affordability of our food supply. The only thing they have managed to do is create more work for the farmers. As if we do not have enough to do already. If anyone needs a pitchfork, I have extras.