Tag: parasites

Flesh-Eating Screwworm Outbreak Threatens Texas Cattle Industry as Critical Sterile Fly Facility Faces Multi-Year Delay

A dangerous New World screwworm outbreak has been confirmed in Texas livestock for the first time in decades, raising serious concerns for the already struggling cattle industry, while an important domestic sterile fly production facility remains years away from full operation.

The Department of Agriculture’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service confirmed the first case in early June in a calf in Zavala County, Texas.

Additional cases have since been detected in cattle and a goat in Texas, and in a dog in New Mexico.

“This is believed to be an isolated case; however, because the dog’s recent travel and exposure history remain unknown, USDA and state partners have initiated inspection of additional animals in the dog’s home and increased outreach in the area while continuing to investigate the animal’s movement history,” the USDA said in an announcement.

The parasite, whose larvae burrow into the flesh of warm-blooded animals and feed on living tissue, poses a major threat to livestock, wildlife, and potentially pets.

While no human cases have been reported in the current outbreak, the screwworm can infest people in rare instances.

The U.S. cattle industry herd is already at its lowest level in 75 years due to droughts, high feed costs, and other factors.

The added expense of increased monitoring, quarantine measures, and treatment for infected animals is expected to further strain operations and could push beef prices higher for consumers.

According to a wire from Nerve News, “The most effective method to combat screwworm involves breeding sterile flies to disrupt the parasite’s reproductive cycle. However, a facility under construction at Moore Air Base in Texas will not begin producing sterile flies until November 2027, with full capacity not expected for several years. Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins acknowledged the delay, stating that the US will not be able to eradicate the parasite until the facility reaches full production, but expressed optimism about containment efforts.”

“We’re not going to be able to eradicate it until we’ve got the couple hundred million more flies coming in, but we will be able to contain it,” Rollins said.

Once complete, the facility is expected to breed up to 300 million sterile flies per week.

In an effort to contain the outbreak, quarantines have been placed in multiple Texas counties, and surveillance efforts have been expanded.

USDA APHIS has begun releasing sterile flies in affected areas using existing inventory from Panama and Mexico.

Canada has implemented temporary restrictions on certain livestock imports from Texas as a precaution.

The USDA urged, “While not common in people, if you notice a suspicious lesion on your body or suspect you may have contracted screwworm, seek immediate medical attention.”

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Disaster Declared as 2nd Screwworm Case Found in Texas near Border, Canada Bans Texas Cattle

A second case of the flesh‑eating New World screwworm has been confirmed in Texas, only miles from the Mexican border, prompting Canada to shut its border to Texas livestock and Governor Greg Abbott to declare a state of disaster over what he warns is an “imminent threat.”

The U.S. Department of Agriculture announced on Friday that a second infestation of screwworm larvae had been found in a calf in Zavala County, Texas. The second finding took place on the ranch near the Texas-Mexico border, about 5.6 miles from the case found earlier this week. The discovery of the second incident of the flesh-eating screwworm prompted Governor Abbott to issue a disaster declaration and apply additional state resources to combat the outbreak.

In a statement on Friday, Governor Abbott stated:

First, I authorize the use of all available resources of state government to respond to this disaster and reassign resources from across the state as needed to address NWS. Second, I am making all state personnel available to accelerate the movement of sterile flies into Texas and the construction of the new sterile screwworm production facility in Edinburg. We have eradicated this pest before, and we will do it again.

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Where’s the Beef? A Long-Gone Livestock-Eating Bug Is Back, and I have a Theory As to Why.

It turns out that a flesh-eating larva, the screwworm, not seen in the U.S. since 1966, has found its way back onto livestock ranches in southern Texas, and I smell a stink badger in the perfume aisle.

The infected calf (rumors have it that a second cow has been located, but I cannot yet verify this report) is on a ranch very close to the Mexican border. Authorities have set up a 12-mile quarantine zone around the ranch.

You may recall the feds arrested three Chinese scientists spies at the Detroit airport, one of whom was busted for sneaking in a fungus that could be used to wipe out our crops, and another was caught sneaking in roundworms, which are also devastating to mammals, including livestock.  

Here’s the fun part: Texas authorities arrested six camo-clad Chinese nationals with backpacks on a ranch in Texas on May 26, allegedly with the help of Mexican cartels. Less than a week later, the first case of screwworm was discovered. Somehow, that didn’t make the big Operation Mockingbird headlines. 

We do not yet know what the authorities found in those aforementioned backpacks.

The ranch where the Chinese were discovered is about 41 miles away from the ranch where the first infected calf was located, roughly a day-and-a-half walk. Both ranches are located very close to the Mexican border, in an area where few Chinese illegal border-rushers have been apprehended in the open-border years of the Biden administration.

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“Beneficial Bloodsucking”: Bioethicists Claim Tick-Borne Meat Allergies Are A Good Thing Because They’ll Make You Stop Eating Red Meat.

You just can’t make this stuff up.

A pair of so-called “bioethicists” from Western Michigan University published a jaw-dropping paper last year arguing that alpha-gal syndrome (AGS) — the red meat allergy spread by lone star tick bites — is actually a good thing.

They even titled the paper “Beneficial Bloodsucking.”

The bioethicists believe that “if eating meat is morally impermissible, then efforts to prevent the spread of tick-borne AGS are also morally impermissible.” They argue that AGS is actually a “moral bioenhancer if and when it motivates people to stop eating meat.” And in their twisted view of the world, fewer farting cows means a win for the climate cult.

Of course, the idea that farting cows contribute to climate change is baseless, as methane emissions by livestock have a negligible effect on Earth’s temperature. So “killing all the 1.6 billion cattle on Earth” would cause a temperature change of about −0.04 C. That’s it.

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NYS bill would force MTA to tell riders about bed bug infestations

They’re itching for the truth.

New York State lawmakers are pushing a bill that would force the MTA to tell riders about bed bug infestation on trains and buses within 24 hours.

The bill, sponsored by Assemblymember William Colton (D-Brooklyn), would set rules to require the MTA to either post a message on its website or send an alert via email or text about any infestation.

“The MTA – for no good reason – has been resistant about alerting its customers when an infestation has been detected,” Colton said in a statement.

“Millions of New Yorkers use our critically important trains and buses regularly,” Colton added. “They should not have to add ‘will I bring home bed bugs?’ to their list of concerns as they go about their daily life.”

A previous version of the bill passed the Assembly but died in the state Senate, according to representatives. The latest legislation made it through the Assembly last month and is now in the hands of the Senate’s Transportation Committee.

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Pfizer Says Lyme Vaccine Missed Trial Target, Will Still Seek Approval

Pfizer and its partner Valneva said on March 23 that their experimental Lyme disease vaccine did not meet the target in a clinical trial, but that the results were strong enough that the firms will seek regulatory approval for the shot.

The vaccine, known as LB6V, was about 75 percent efficacious in reducing confirmed Lyme in recipients compared with placebo recipients, the companies said. The efficacy was measured one day after the fourth vaccine dose, and was similar to the 73 percent efficacy observed 28 days after the fourth shot.

The drugmakers said that because there were fewer Lyme cases than expected during the trial, dubbed VALOR, the predetermined statistical target was not met. However, because the efficacy was “clinically meaningful,” the companies expressed confidence in the shot and said they would be filing for approval.

“The efficacy shown in the VALOR study of more than 70 percent is highly encouraging and creates confidence in the vaccine’s potential to protect against this disease that can be debilitating,” Annaliesa Anderson, Pfizer’s chief vaccines officer, said in a statement.

Valneva CEO Thomas Lingelbach said: “[The results] bring us a step closer to our goal of delivering a much-needed vaccine.

“We are grateful to our partner Pfizer for their strong commitment which we both share in developing this vaccine as quickly as possible.”

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EXPOSED: US Labs Breeding Deadly Foreign Ticks in Bid for mRNA Vaccines

U.S. government-funded labs are actively breeding colonies of exotic Hyalomma ticks imported from Africa to study Crimean-Congo Hemorrhagic Fever (CCHF), a brutal tick-borne virus with a 30% mortality rate that’s never been detected in America.

This high-stakes research, aimed at developing mRNA vaccines and analyzing transmission in livestock, is raising red flags among experts who warn of catastrophic lab leaks that could unleash the disease on U.S. soil, devastating agriculture and public health.

The program involves multiple facilities, including the USDA’s Agricultural Research Service in Manhattan, Kansas (tied to the National Bio and Agro-Defense Facility, formerly on Plum Island), UC Davis in California, and Texas Tech in Lubbock, Texas, according to research from the White Coat Waste project, first reported by The Highwire.

These sites are establishing tick colonies to experiment on CCHF transmission in cattle, sheep, and goats, assessing risks for the virus establishing itself here based on climate and ecology.

“The White Coat Waste Project uncovered 10 existing USDA contracts to work on mRNA vaccines, including one that is studying Crimean-Congo Hemorrhagic Fever (CCHF), a highly pathogenic tick-borne disease with a 10-40% case fatality rate,” The Highwire reports. “The research grant is given to the Agricultural Research Service in Manhattan, Kansas, in combination with researchers at the National Bio and Agro-Defense Facility (NBAF), which was formerly on Plum Island, where researchers were studying Lyme disease near Lyme, Connecticut, where the first outbreak occurred.”

CCHF, first identified in Crimea in 1944, causes severe symptoms and can spread from ticks to animals or humans, and even person-to-person.

There’s no widely licensed vaccine, only a dubious Soviet-era one from 1970.

Funding flows from USDA contracts for mRNA vaccine development, including 10 ongoing deals specifically targeting CCHF.

EcoHealth Alliance, infamous for its role in COVID origins research, snagged a $3.7 million Department of Defense grant from 2020-2024 to study CCHF as part of “combating weapons of mass destruction.”

The Highwire notes, “WCWP was the organization that first uncovered that EcoHealth Alliance was involved in gain-of-function research with coronaviruses at the Wuhan Institute of Virology, approved by NIAID head Dr. Anthony Fauci, which the FBI and CIA both state is the most likely source of the COVID-19 virus that sparked a worldwide pandemic. WCWP celebrated the announcement that the CDC will be closing all monkey studies by the end of the year.”

Another USDA contract, running through March 2026, supports the core research.

Critics are blasting this as reckless madness.

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Researchers consider infecting Americans with ticks to make them allergic to red meat

There have been countless examples of liberalism being a mental disorder.

Here is another one:

Two researchers from Western Michigan University have written a paper titled “Beneficial Bloodsucking,” which was published by the journal Bioethics this past July. (No, it isn’t about vampires.)

The paper argues that intentionally spreading alpha-gal syndrome (AGS), a potentially life-threatening allergy to red meat, could be not only morally defensible, but perhaps even necessary, in order to reduce animal suffering and combat climate change.

Here are the authors, Parker Crutchfield and Blake Hereth, in their own words:

Because promoting tickborne AGS prevents something bad from happening, doesn’t violate anyone’s rights, and promotes virtuous action or character, it follows that promoting tickborne AGS is strongly pro tanto (‘to that extent’) morally obligatory.

Say what?

Enlisting genetically engineered ticks to curb the consumption of hamburgers, steaks, and other red meats violates the hell out of everyone’s rights.

It is a “bad” thing in and of itself.

Ticks can carry Lyme disease, as well, which also can be deadly.

Who do they think they are? They have no right to force others to give up red meat … or drive a Prius for that matter, whether it be via overt or covert acts.

As one might expect, there were numerous negative online comments, prompting Crutchfield to characterize the paper as “just a thought experiment and not an endorsement of spreading the allergy-causing ailment.” 

A thought experiment? The hell it was!

The authors actually wrote that promoting tickborne AGS is “morally obligatory.”

Those in the “Earth would be better off if there were nobody here but me” crowd are enough to make the rest of us sick.

Pointy-headed academic asshats who live in a lab and/or bubble have already caused far too much damage.

These two really ticked me off. In fact, I’m seeing red (meat).

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Agriculture Secretary Announces Update As Flesh-Eating Screwworm Comes Within 70 Miles Of US Border

More than 8,000 traps have been deployed across Texas, Arizona, and New Mexico, targeting the New World screwworm (NWS) flies, Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins said in a Sept. 26 post on X, adding that no additional NWS infections have been detected since last Sunday.

On Sunday, Sept. 21, an announcement was made by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), which said that Mexico’s National Service of Agro-Alimentary Health, Safety, and Quality had confirmed a new NWS infection in Sabinas Hidalgo, Nueva Leon state, less than 70 miles from America’s southern border. The infected animal was an 8-month-old cow.

Earlier in July, an NWS infection had been reported 370 miles south of the U.S.–Mexico border.

In her post, Rollins said that over 13,000 screening samples have been screened, and zero NWS flies have been identified thus far.

In addition, 750,000 sterilized NWS flies are being trucked in and dispersed in the Nueva Leon region twice a week, she said.

Mass-produced, sterile male NWS flies are often used to tackle the spread of wild NWS fly swarms. When these sterile flies are released into a swarm in large numbers, they mate with the wild female flies, which end up laying unfertilized eggs, thus lowering the swarm population.

Tackling NWS swarms is crucial since they pose a major threat to livestock. In an Aug. 15 statement, USDA called NWS a “devastating pest.”

“When NWS fly larvae (maggots) burrow into the flesh of a living animal, they cause serious, often deadly damage to the animal. NWS can infest livestock, pets, wildlife, occasionally birds, and in rare cases, people,” the agency said.

“It is not only a threat to our ranching community, but it is a threat to our food supply and our national security.”

Since May, U.S. ports have been closed to imports of cattle, horses, and bison from Mexico to prevent the spread of NWS flies into the United States.

Rollins accused Mexico of having “failed to enforce proper cattle movement controls and neglected to regularly maintain fly traps as agreed, undermining detection efforts.”

“This is unacceptable,” she said in the post on X. “Mexico must immediately implement agreed-upon protocols, expand surveillance, and restrict cattle movement in infected zones. For the foreseeable future the border will remain closed.”

In a Sept. 22 statement, Mexico’s Secretariat of Agriculture and Rural Development said that the Sept. 21 detection was of an NWS fly in its larval stage, “meaning there is no possibility of the fly emerging.”

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USDA BANS LIVESTOCK FROM MEXICO BUT IS YOUR “MADE IN THE USA” BEEF ACTUALLY MADE IN THE USA?

For 70 years, the United States has been fighting an invasion at our southern border, but its not the invasion of illegal immigrants we are talking about.

The United States has, for 70 years, been fighting a continuous aerial war against the New World screwworm, a parasite that eats animals alive: cow, pig, deer, dog, even human. (Its scientific name, C. hominivorax, translates to “man-eater.”) Larvae of the parasitic fly chew through flesh, transforming small nicks into big, gruesome wounds. 

The United States government, to prevent the spread of this deadly parasite, blasted flies with radiation to make them sterile and then began intensive campaign of dropping these sterile flies south of the border.

While this effort held the deadly parasite at bay for a time, the containment efforts are now failing:

But in 2022, the barrier was breached. Cases in Panama—mostly in cattle—skyrocketed from dozens a year to 1,000, despite ongoing drops of sterile flies. The parasite then began moving northward, at first slowly and then rapidly by 2024… The U.S. subsequently suspended live-cattle imports from Mexico.

Now the Trump administration is taking new efforts to stop the spread of the deadly parasite, by shutting down livestock trade across the southern border:

US Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins has ordered the shutdown of livestock trade through southern border ports following the detection of a new case of New World Screwworm in Veracruz, Mexico—a massive red flag that the parasite is moving north toward the United States.

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