A good thread on screwworms. Talking to an entomologist last year, he also added that the pandemic was the first domino. Scientists couldn’t get to the facilities, couldn’t get out into the field to check outbreak reports.
5/ Experts point to several factors for why it came back:
1️⃣Cattle smuggling outside control zones
2️⃣In early 2025, roughly 15,000 USDA positions were eliminated, and a USAID-funded monitoring project was terminated
3️⃣ The loss of specialized expertise as generations of entomologists retire
