This article has been reviewed according to Science X's editorial process and policies. Editors have highlighted the following attributes while ensuring the content's credibility: Researchers at the University of Kentucky Martin-Gatton College of Agriculture, Food and Environment (CAFE) and the U.S. Department of Agriculture have discovered that mating changes the chemical coating on the New World screwworm, a fly species with maggots that can cause serious tissue destruction and deadly diseases in livestock and other animals.
The findings may help scientists better understand how the insects recognize mates and could provide leads for future monitoring and control methods. "New World screwworms are not worms but the larvae of a parasitic fly known as Cochliomyia hominivorax," said Zain Syed, Ph.D., an associate professor in the Department of Entomology who led the study published in the Journal of Medical Entomology. "Female flies lay their eggs in open wounds or natural body openings of cattle, horses, pets, wildlife and other warm-blooded animals.
The larvae then burrow into living tissue and feed, causing painful wounds that can lead to serious infections or death if the infestation is not treated." The U.S. eradicated the pest in 1966 through a large program in which researchers raised and sterilized screwworm flies before releasing them into affected areas. When sterile males mated with wild females, the females produced eggs that did not hatch. Repeated releases gradually reduced the wild population.
The program eventually pushed the pest south through Mexico and Central America. A biological barrier of sterile flies in Panama helped keep screwworms from returning to areas where they had been eliminated. The U.S. also stopped a smaller outbreak in the Florida Keys in 2017.
New World screwworm has since returned to parts of Central America and Mexico. In June 2026, the USDA confirmed the first U.S. animal case associated with the current outbreak. The case involved a calf in Zavala County, Texas.
Although the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports that the current risk to people and animals in the U.S. is very low, the outbreak has increased the need for dependable detection and control methods. The paper examined chemicals found on the surface of adult screwworm flies. These waxy substances, known as cuticular hydrocarbons, help protect insects from drying out.
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