“It is a serious issue… it’s caused some fluctuations and some concern in the cattle industry,” said Louisiana Department of Agriculture & Forestry Commissioner Mike Strain of the growing New World screwworm (NWS) cases in the U.S. in a Thursday interview with Audacy.
That means that beef prices could be going up. For reference, the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis listed average ground beef prices in U.S. cities at around $6.75 per pound last month.
As of Thursday, seven NWS cases have been detected in the states, up from around a week ago. Most of the cases have been found in Texas cattle, per the U.S. Department of Agriculture, though one Texas case included goats and a dog with an NWS infestation was reported in New Mexico.
“They’re advancing, unfortunately,” said Strain of the pests.
NWS flies lay their eggs inside the wounds or body orifices of living hosts, causing painful, smelly wounds and in some severe cases, death. In the 1930s, the U.S. developed a program for dealing with outbreaks that involves releasing millions of sterile male NWS flies. While typically effective, this method can also be expensive.
Strain told Tommy Tucker out of Audacy station WWL in New Orleans that there is “more federal money being directed… $1.3 billion dollars… to attack, control and hold back on the screwworms,”
CNBC also reported this week that NWS is poised to potentially “exacerbate existing inflation pain,” in the U.S. Back in May, the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas was already ringing the alarm about screwworms following an outbreak in Mexico. It said that if there is a large screwworm outbreak like one recorded in 1972, damage could exceed $3 billion across the Southwest.
“By sickening or killing cattle, the screwworm could trigger shortages and higher beef prices,” the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas said.
U.S. consumers have already been dealing with high beef prices. CNBC noted that prices are up 12.9% year-over-year per the latest consumer price index report from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, though ground beef fell 1.27% in May.
Goran Haiem, the founder of Destination Wagyu, a high-end beef brand based in Los Angeles, is expecting higher prices due to historically low cattle stock, CNBC said.
“We are at a 75-year low right now on U.S. cattle herd, and this does not help because screwworm further disrupts ranchers expanding their herd,” Haiem explained, according to the outlet.
CNN also said this week that “grocery shoppers could get hit with higher prices if the screwworm cases turn into a full-blown outbreak.” Todd Thrift, a beef sciences professor at the University of Florida, told the outlet that the outbreak will be a burden on cattle producers.
Danny Jones of Superior Livestock also said that cattle producers and marketers could face additional requirements and challenges due to the NWS outbreak, according to the Oklahoma Farm report. However, he said “our intent is to continue to deliver what’s sold and deliver what does sell.”
While U.S. NWS cases are now only in single digits, in Mexico and Central America more than 185,000 NWS cumulative cases reported in animals and more than 2,100 cases have been reported in people, according to the U.S. centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Strain told Tucker that U.S. officials are watching the situation here “very closely.”
