Mai says that today's workshop will not only teach farmers how to identify an infected animal, but also how they can protect their herd. He says that they are already working on implementing preventative measures at points of entry.
Jose Mai, Minister of Agriculture
"In all of Central America, we are the only country that does not import cattle. The only cattle that would be imported would be probably breeding animals, bulls from Guatemala, which is very rare. I haven't seen much importation, probably come to my desk for that."
"Most of the cattle we import is from Guatemala, from Yucatan, on -going fair, very little cattle is imported from Guatemala. Now, all of Central America is totally the opposite to Belize."
"They all import cattle from Nicaragua. Nicaragua is the largest supplier of beef in the region. They have a nine million herd and a million animals are suspected to be moved from Nicaragua into Honduras, into Guatemala, finally into Mexico."
"And of that million, 90% are informal trade. So the screwworms are moving in animals that are being transported. If we do not import animals, we have a lower risk. But the fly can only move in certain ways. They can fly 25 miles a day, it can be transported in the form of larva in a wounded animal, or the flag can catch a taxi, I mean in an airplane the found one the other day, right? And it can come in the cabin of a truck or in the pupa in the faeces of trucks that come in to buy cattle."
"So the first thing we need to do is those trucks need to come and sanitize into the country. They cannot come in with faeces or sand or saw dust or rice on the ground. They have to come in clean. And then we will spray those trucks, we will treat those trucks inside and outside so that there's no risk of bringing in a larva, a pupa or an adult fly."
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