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Sheinbaum, who has spent the past few months scrambling to
offset tariff threats by U.S. President Donald Trump, said she
hoped the suspension would not result in another economic blow
for her country.
“We do not agree with this measure,” she said at her morning
press conference on Monday. “The Mexican government has been
working an all fronts from the very first moment we were alerted
to the screwworm."
The U.S. restricted Mexican cattle shipments in late November
following the detection of the pest, but lifted the ban in
February after protocols were put in place to evaluate the
animals prior to entry into the country. But there has been an
“unacceptable northward advancement” of the screwworm, the U.S.
Department of Agriculture said in a statement Sunday.
“The last time this devastating pest invaded the U.S. it took
our livestock industry 30 years to recover,” U.S. Agriculture
Secretary Brooke Rollins said on the X social media platform.
“This can never happen again.”
The screwworm is a larva of the Cochliomyia hominivorax fly that
can invade the tissues of any warm-blooded animal, including
humans. The parasite enters the skin, causing serious and
life-threatening damage and lesions.
Mexico’s Health Ministry issued an epidemiological warning this
month after the first human case of screwworm myiasis, or
parasitic infestation, was confirmed on April 17 in a
77-year-old woman living in the southern state of Chiapas.
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