Given the advance of screwworm of livestock, which has caused the activation of a national emergency device, the Secretary of Welfarethrough the program Sowing Lifehas decided to integrate its extensive operational structure into the containment and eradication strategy.
The measure, made official approximately a week ago, seeks to mitigate the health risk which, according to program authorities, transcends the livestock sector and represents a threat to wildlife, domestic animals and even public health.
The Undersecretary of Productive Inclusion and Rural Development, Columba López, gave the signal for the technical teams and beneficiaries to begin coordinating with local and federal authorities, mainly with the National Agri-Food Health, Safety and Quality Service (Senasica).
The deputy director of the Sembrando Vida program, Víctor Arrasate Argueta, explained that the social commitment inherent to the rural initiative is the driving force behind this incorporation. “The program, which operates in 24 states of the Republic, will involve approximately 427,000 people, who despite not being large livestock farmers, live in areas where the plague has spread, affecting not only livestock but dogs (the second most affected animal, according to the official) and wildlife.”
Arrasate Argueta emphasized that the strength of the program lies in its territorial presence and its capacity for mobilization: “We say, ok, we can join in a coordinated manner, yes, following the protocols, following the methodologies proposed by the Ministry of Agriculture through Senasica so that we with this entire operational structure that involves producers, planters, planters, but also technical assistance, technical personnel and very specialized technical personnel (…) that the Sembrando Vida program has.”
The strategy will focus on prevention, inspection and reporting actions. Beneficiaries will undertake small-scale screening of their animals and warm-blooded animals in their communities, identifying and dressing wounds, which are the key entry point for the pest. If wounds with maggots are detected, an immediate report will be made to Senasica for specialized care. In addition, the program has assumed the goal of massifying a key control measure: trapping. “If we, as the Sembrando Vida program, said to ourselves, we are going to install at least three traps per beneficiary. We are talking about to install almost more than 800,000 traps,” explained Arrasate Argueta.
This participation is seen as a multiplier of efforts, since pest control has an exponential effect. The deputy director stressed the importance of acting quickly to control sources of infection: “A fly that arrives and reproduces, we are talking about that in 63 days one fly can produce 64 million flies in 63 days. So, by controlling a single wound with maggots, we did a lot for the country.”
In addition, the strategy’s focus will not be limited to areas with reports, but will be extended to areas without known cases to prevent the emergence of new outbreaks.
The official concluded by highlighting the spirit of collaboration that the program has fostered: “The idea is that we help bring together all the actors that are in the territory… You have the technical part, the scientific part, but we have a large part of the operation. So we can be very good teams.”
The expectation is that this coordination will accelerate the stopping of the expansion of the screwworm and prevent the problem from escalating to higher economic and public health levels.
