As screwworms continue spreading across Texas, Jason Sawyer, our chief science officer, says ranchers’ best move right now is to hold the line and weather the storm while sterile fly production scales up (a process he expects could realistically take three to five years to bring the parasite back under control). Sawyer points to wildlife, especially the state’s booming deer population, as a major unknown in how far and how long screwworms will persist in the environment. In the meantime, ranchers are returning to the same labor-intensive, decades-old practices, careful wound inspection and treatment, that many haven’t had to rely on since before eradication.
