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🇵🇾 Paraguay /Health & Science

Mexico releases 73.9 million flies to curb livestock screwworm outbreak

From ABC Color · () Spanish

Translated from Spanish and summarized by DistantNews. Read the original for the full story.

At a glance

Newswire Official statement Ongoing story
  • Mexico released 73.9 million sterile flies at 157 sites in Chihuahua and Sonora to control the livestock screwworm outbreak.
  • Authorities inspected more than 3,900 livestock production units and treated over 100,000 animals with preventive medication.
  • Active cases in Chihuahua fell 71% to 64, while Sonora reported 25 cases ahead of the planned resumption of cattle exports to the United States.

Mexico has released 73.9 million sterile flies across its northwestern border region in an effort to slow the spread of livestock screwworm before cattle exports to the United States resume through Sonora.

The flies, produced at a plant in Metapa de Domínguez, Chiapas, were released by land at 157 strategic sites in Chihuahua and Sonora. The locations include municipalities such as Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua, Cuauhtémoc, Namiquipa, Álamos and Yécora.

Mexico’s National Service for Agro-Alimentary Public Health, Safety and Quality inspected 3,832 livestock production units in Chihuahua and another 108 in Sonora. From July 26 to Aug. 31, officials treated more than 100,000 cattle, dogs, goats, horses, rabbits and hares, sheep, birds and pigs with preventive medication.

73.9 million sterile flies have been released by land, produced at the Metapa de Domínguez plant in the state of Chiapas.

· Mexico’s Secretariat of Agriculture and Rural DevelopmentThe ministry described the biological-control operation in an official statement.

According to data for epidemiological week 34, control and eradication measures reduced active cases in Chihuahua from 227 to 64, a 71% decline. Sonora has 25 active cases.

The update came before the planned resumption of live cattle exports to the United States through Agua Prieta, Sonora. Mexico and the United States reopened the Douglas port on Aug. 24, starting with a shipment of 750 head and planning to increase the flow gradually to 1,500 animals a day. The reopening ended more than a year of intermittent closures linked to the pest, a larva that invades the living tissue of warm-blooded animals.

The United States first suspended Mexican cattle imports in November 2024 after the first case was detected in Chiapas. It later closed border ports again on May 11, 2025, after the pest spread to Oaxaca and Veracruz. The Douglas crossing briefly reopened on July 7, 2025, but closed two days later after another case was reported in Veracruz. Sonora’s regional livestock union said an inspection chute used by U.S. Agriculture Department personnel had also developed safety problems before the latest reopening.

presented irregularities that posed a risk to personnel and the livestock themselves.

· Sonora Regional Livestock UnionThe union cited the condition of a cattle inspection chute used by U.S. officials.
About this summary

Originally published by ABC Color in Spanish. Translated, summarized, and contextualized automatically by DistantNews, with a note on how the source frames the story. Not individually reviewed before publishing. How this works.

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