Alabama Man Brings Screwworms
Back From Brazilian Jungle

HUNTSVILLE, Ala. —(AP)— Alabama health and agriculture officials were taking steps over the weekend to control a possible infestation of flesh-eating screwworms after the larvae were found on a Huntsville man who had recently traveled to Brazil.

The traveler, who was not identified, sought treatment after noticing growing sores on his scalp following his return from a trip July 31. Health officials said they believe screwworm flies probably laid eggs in an open wound on his head while the man was in the Brazilian rain forest.

During the insect's three-week life cycle, the eggs hatch and become larvae, which then feed on the host animal's flesh until they pupate and turn into flies. Screwworm larvae can kill a 600-pound steer in five to seven days, experts said.

Although the man has been treated, officials are concerned that some of the maggots might have escaped the man's house and gotten into the soil, where they could become flies and then mate. The insect thrives in warm weather, and used to be a problem throughout the Southwest, but a federal eradication program spearheaded by stockmen wiped them out.

"We are taking every appropriate measure to prevent the larvae from spreading," said Dr. Chris Bishop, a veterinarian with the state agriculture department.

Madison County's public health officer, Dr. Larry Robey, said animals are at greater risk from the screwworm than humans.

Every veterinarian in the county has been notified about the potential problem and is instructed to send any suspicious maggot found in any pet or livestock to the Agriculture Department for testing.

Bishop, a field officer based in Muscle Shoals, said area pet owners and other citizens also should immediately report any suspicious or foul-smelling wounds.

"They tend to smell," he said of the maggots and the wounds they create.

The health department will spray the area around the infected man's home with pesticide nightly for the next 10 nights, Robey said.

The Alabama Department of Agriculture also plans to fumigate the inside of the southwest Huntsville home and the airplane the man flew in on his return to the United States. Officials would not say where the plane landed.

The man sought treatment at two different clinics before he was sent to the University of Alabama at Birmingham medical center, where doctors recovered a maggot and sent it to the National Veterinary Services Laboratory in Ames, Iowa, where it was identified.

The man underwent surgery Friday in Birmingham to remove the rest of the maggots. He is expected to recover fully.

"Every now and again, someone is infected while traveling abroad and brings back the screwworm. It's always contained," Bishop said.

If any larvae are discovered outside the man's home or elsewhere in the county, state agriculture officials will go to work to eradicate them with intensified spraying and a release of 10,000 sterilized screwworm flies to interrupt the breeding cycle.

In a related development, Jamaica plans to begin releasing sterile screwworm flies to eradicate the pest from that island country, as it has been eradicated from the U.S., Mexico and much of Central America.

Agriculture Minister Roger Clarke said screwworms caused 37 human deaths last year and well as livestock losses of between $5 million and $7 million annually.

The greenish-blue fly is widespread in Jamaica and elsewhere in the Caribbean, said Clarke.

"Alarming but true, the fly will lay its eggs in the cuts and bruises that a child or even an adult may have and which is not properly tended," said Clarke. "In Jamaica people have died from infestations of the screwworm fly."

Clarke said it is hoped the introduction of sterile flies will lead to the end of Jamaica’s screwworm problem in three years.

The program has already worked successfully in parts of Africa, North America, Central America, the U.S. Virgin Islands and Curacao in the Caribbean, resulting in complete eradication.

The three-year program, set to begin in March or April next year, is expected to cost $9 million.

"Twenty million pupae will be brought into the island each week, held in chambers and allowed to emerge. Fifteen million sterile flies each week are expected to be produced," said James Wendell Snow, technical adviser to the government.