Target: Glenn Thompson, Chair of U.S. House Committee on Agriculture
Goal: Launch broad action plan to curtail risk posed by New World screwworms.
It sounds like a horror movie: seemingly normal flies with a tell-tale green-blue color find the tiniest of open wounds. They use these injuries as nests for their worm-like larvae. And when these squiggly creatures hatch, they feast upon tissues in the wound. In the best cases, the infection is caught and the host returns to normal. But in the worst cases…
Screwworms – bogeymen to livestock and agriculture in the United States decades ago – are on the verge of making a not-so-triumphant return to the lands they once ruled. While the flesh-eating parasites have been confined to Panama and surrounding areas, warming weather has quickly accelerated the New World screwworm’s range of habitation. It has been discovered in Mexico, and a human case was recently detected in the United States. While human cases are rare, they can escalate, as happened in Panama when an average of two dozen infections per year skyrocketed to over 6,000.
Campaigns to sterilize male flies and release them to mate with females (who only mate once in their lifetimes) proved successful during the last US outbreak and have achieved success in Panama as well. Sign the petition below to demand Congress invest in a more broadscale campaign of resolution with a focus on climate impacts.
PETITION LETTER:
Dear Representative Thompson,
Scientists have warned of the havoc the New World screwworm can wreak on American agriculture and potentially on public health if this threat is not contained. With a case recently detected in an American resident and the presence of these parasites perilously close to the American border, time is of the essence. Passage of the bill bringing investment into sterile screwworm facilities must be a priority.
Moreover, the scrubbing of information regarding the likely main driver of this rising infestation – climate change – must end. Any solution must include a keen understanding of root causes, or else successes will be fleeting.
Sincerely,
[Your Name Here]
Photo Credit: Mexican American Commission for the Eradication of the Screwworm
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