AUSTIN — Texas Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller and the Texas Department of Agriculture (TDA) yesterday hosted agricultural and epidemiological leaders from across Latin America for collaborative meetings to tackle the threat of the New World screwworm. The two-day visit in Austin, Texas, coordinated and held across state and federal agencies and producer organizations at the request of the U.S. Department of State’s International Visitor Leadership Program and Global Texas, brought together experts from Mexico, Central America, and the United States to coordinate early detection efforts, strengthen cross-border surveillance, and develop unified livestock protection strategies. 

Delegates and Texas officials discussed advanced control technologies, improvements in multinational reporting systems, and potential joint operations to prevent reinfestation along the U.S.–Mexico border. The meetings also highlighted Texas’s leadership in surveillance innovation and the state’s close working relationship with regional animal-health authorities.

“We are doing as much as we possibly can to put an end to this pest,” Nestor Guerrero with the National Federation of Cattle Producers in Mexico said. “Believe me when I say that we, from Mexico and all other Central American countries, are doing our utmost best to bring this plague to an end.”

Pictured above, Carlos Moreno, the COPEG General Director, Panama

“Everyone has a high duty of things to do day by day,” Carlos Moreno, the COPEG General Director for Panama, said. “Not only the farmers, but also the society.”

Commissioner Miller underscored that Texas would continue leading on livestock protection, noting that proactive collaboration is essential to safeguarding the U.S. cattle industry: “We want to protect our farm animals. We want to protect our pets. We want to protect human beings from this pest. I think everyone agrees here that this is not a good thing,” Miller said. “There's no positive that comes out of screwworms being active in your country or advancing from one country to the next. I think we're all united, we're all unified. We want the same results, and I think we're all on the same team.”

To learn more about the New World screwworm and collaborative efforts to combat this threat please visit www.screwworm.gov.