What Do Northwest Ranchers Need To Know About NWS

While only reappearing in the United States a few months ago, New World Screwworm has been top of mind for ranchers and producers nationwide for well over a year. What do producers across the Northwest need to know about the parasite? M. Wayne Ayers, veterinarian for Elanco in Idaho, said many people hear NWS and they become fearful.

He noted the best thing you can do as an operation, or as an individual ,is to become more educated about what NWS is, and is not.

“We have these sensationalized headlines that sound scary," Ayers said. "And just the thought of this is a little bit scary because The reality is we're two generations away from when we dealt with it all the time. We know I'm old enough that my father and grandfather, they all were aware and we dealt with it. And I remember doing things as kids that You didn't even think about it, but they were looking back, they were related to preventing screwworm because we had it, in the 60s and we were driving it out of the country.”

To prevent NWS from spreading to your herd, Ayers says it’s important to see your animals as often as possible, even if they are grazing in large spaces. It’s also important to address fly pressures, and any cuts or open wounds that may be on your cow; no matter how small.

Also, Ayers noted the PNW is not a hot spot for these flies, since our soil typically freezes during the winter.

“Even when it was endemic we would get these incursions all the way to the Canadian border and that was usually as a result of moving an animal that had an infestation that wasn't seen so during the summer if I moved to an animal from Texas all the way to Montana or you know southern Nevada up into Washington you could set up a local infestation during the summer but it would not propagate into the next winter.”