The new world screw worm has appeared in every cattle producing Central American country except Belize.
And now it's in Mexico - which has triggered the US to suspend cattle imports from Mexico. It's a temporary pause - but it has a huge effect on the trade between those countries.
And while that happened - Mexican cattle producers are pressing their government to ban imports from Belize - even though the screw worm has not been detected here yet.
The Screw Worm Technical Committee met today in Yo Creek, Orange Walk to discuss the recent events in Guatemala and Mexico. We start with an overview of the problem and then Belize's response:
Zoe Roberson Zetina, Managing Director, BAHA
"First I want to confirm that we do not have a screw worm in Belize and we are going through active surveillance to make sure that we know the health status of our country. In our surrounding countries we pay attention specifically to Guatemala because they are the closest to us and we know that Guatemala right now is reporting 26 cases and the closest case to us is in the far western area of Peten and in that region they have only one reported case."
"The next closest to us is Honduras and Honduras is reporting just over 70 cases and we do believe that Honduras has been doing a really good job at maintaining or controlling the spread in that country."
Reporter
"In terms of Mexico what are we looking at?"
Zoe Roberson Zetina, Managing Director, BAHA
"Mexico has reported only one case and that case was reported at a internal control point and it was the illegal movement of cattle in which they reported that case."
"Because it was on an importation then it has not spread as far as Mexico is reporting so we are not very concerned about that case introduction into Mexico at this point."
Jose Mai, Minister of Agriculture
"The USDA EFS has banned Mexico from exporting cattle into the USA for one screw worm in Peten, southern part of Mexico."
"So this is how serious these people look at their cattle industry and the Mexican associations that represent 800,000 cattle farmers wrote to the secretary for a culture telling him that he asking him to ban us. The government is under pressure by the associations there. The associations are asking the government to ban importation of cattle from Belize and from Guatemala. We are saying to them that there is no reason to do so when we are the only only screw worm free nation in Central America, and El Salvador, and we have cattle as a main industry, because Salvador doesn't have a cattle industry. We do."
"So technically speaking, we're the only country that does not have screw worm in the country. We're the only country that has traceability across the entire country. Every single cow is bled. Everyone has an ear ring. We know the number, where they come from, where they're going to, who owned them before. So we have that in place. Not even Mexico has that in place. And a matter of fact, the resources that government has put towards screw worm control right now is more than what we get from the region. This is how serious government is looking at this."
"You see, 30 years ago, our cattle industry was worth over $20 million? Today in 2024, it's worth close to $100 million, $90 to $100 million. So to us, it's serious thing. It's next to sugar cane. And we have more cattle farmers now than cane farmers, so it is a main foreign exchange earner for us. So we cannot allow this to go down."
The task force meets weekly.
Mai says Belize needs to look at the establishment of a certified slaughtering facility which will enable Belize to export whole cuts of beef.
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