USDA announces screwworm sterile fly dispersal facility in Mexico
The Agriculture Department today announced the opening of a sterile fly dispersal facility in Tampico, Mexico, to combat the New World screwworm.
The Tampico facility will allow USDA to disperse sterile flies aerially across northeastern Mexico, including in Nuevo Leon, USDA said.
“The facility will ensure flexibility and responsiveness in northern Mexico, giving us a greater ability to drop sterile flies and continue to push the pest south,” Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins said in a news release.
Rollins also noted, “Last week I had a productive meeting with Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum and my counterpart Secretary Julio Berdegué on the joint response to screwworm. We are boosting our efforts and completing a joint review of our screwworm operations in Mexico to ensure our protocols are being followed.”
In a separate news release, Rollins noted that she had led a trade mission to Mexico in which 41 U.S. businesses, 33 cooperators and agriculture advocacy groups, six state departments of agriculture, and 150 participants conducted more than 500 business-to-business meetings over three days.
“The trading and diplomatic relationship between our two countries is of the utmost importance to President Trump and American farmers and ranchers,” Rollins said in the news release.
“Whether it is securing the southern border from illegal migration, combatting New World screwworm, or expanding market access for American agricultural products, we are working every day to put American interests first,” she said.
Rollins also met with the team at Mexico’s National Service of Agro-Alimentary Health, Safety, and Quality (SENASICA) headquarters screwworm control room to showcase bilateral efforts to combat the spread of the insect in Mexico. Accompanying Rollins on the trip was Dudley Hoskins, undersecretary for marketing and regulatory programs, who visited the State of Chiapas to review screwworm containment practices and enforcement, USDA noted.
Rollins and Luke Lindberg, undersecretary for trade and foreign agricultural affairs, visited a Walmart Supercenter in Mexico City and Bimbo Bakery, both major importers of U.S. products, USDA added.
The American delegation was joined by Chanel Tewalt, director of Idaho State Department of Agriculture; Sherry Vinton, director of Nebraska Department of Agriculture; Derek Sandison, director of Washington State Department of Agriculture; and officials from the California, Tennessee, and Wisconsin state departments of agriculture.
-The Hagstrom Report
