After several decades at bay, myiasis disease by the BARENDER WORT (Cochliomyia hominivorax) It is “uncontrolled” in cattle from Central America, with hundreds of transmission reports to humans, including people who have traveled to affected countries, such as a citizen from the United States.
Parasites expert scientists and global health have announced the keys to this disease, which beyond industrial livestock, is “closely linked to lack of hygiene and poverty“Rodrigo Morchón, a professor of parasitology at the University of Salamanca.
What is
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Cochliomyia hominivoraxknown as the borer of cattle or the new world (for its origin), “it is a fly that Parasita hot blood animalsincluding humans. His larvae feed on the skin and tissues of his host, causing a disease known as myiasis, “explains Consuelo Giménez, a researcher at the University of Alcalá de Henares.
Flies usually put the eggs in existing wounds In the body of animals and humans, or deposit them in the mucous membranes of body holes such as nose, mouth or ear.
“The female flies are attracted to the smell that the wounds and the edges of these give An average of 343 eggsof which the larvae emerge between 12 and 24 hours later, and immediately begin to feed on the “victim ‘fabric, adds Giménez.
Although myiasis is more common in animals, especially in cows, also can affect humans.
Symptoms
Animal symptoms often include irritable or depressed behavior, loss of appetite, shaking their heads, detaching decomposition or presence of fly larvae in wounds or holes. In humans they include Fever, pain In the affected area, suppuration and presence of visible larvae in the wound.
Although the infestation is mild, it depends on what part of the body it occurs, it can lead to Severe secondary conditionsas septicemia, especially in young – if it’s animals – and in children, elderly or sick – in the case of people -, causing death.
While There are no medications To treat infection, prevention and rapid extraction of the larvae and the wound cleaning are key.
Treatment and mortality
“In the case of cattle, in areas of a low infestation rate, the recovery and survival of animals is usually favorable, but in situations of Many cases and poor treatmenthigh mortality is presented, especially in newborn animals, “says the parasitology researcher at the University of Alcalá de Henares.
“Bovines resist quite well complications and, with effective treatment, injuries caused heal soon; but other species such as sheep, goat and equine They tend to present secondary complications, “he adds.
In the case of people, once the myiasis is treated, it is “very rare that someone dies For her unless it is given in a delicate place, such as next to the eye or teeth, “Morchón details.
The disease is mandatory communicationboth in people and animals, according to the norms of the World Organization for Animal Health.
Expansion
Although in South America, specific cases have always been reported, in centroméric infections in Panamato those who followed Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Honduras, Guatemala, El Salvador, Belize, or Mexico.
In Panama, where almost 50,000 cases have been registered since 2022, the authorities have reported 161 contagios in humans. So far from 2025, the following cases have been reported in Central America: 166 people in Honduras, 117 in Nicaragua, 69 in Costa Rica, 41 in Mexico, 3 in El Salvador and one in Belize.
Las Socio -economic losses In the affected countries they are being devastating, only in Mexico they calculate 30 million dollars per month only for the closure decreed to the export of live cattle to the United States.
Control
Giménez affects that “the strict control of animals outside the affected areas also acts as a preventive measure,” Not having vaccines or other biological products Available to stop this myiasis, except for the use of sterilized male flies.
This method implies release of a large number of sterilized male flies In the environment, where their rigs with wild females produce infertile eggs, which leads to a reduction of the population and, progressively, to their eradication.
Mexico, for example, has agreed with the United States to enable a new plant in Chiapas to produce up to 100 million sterile flies a week and thus fight this plague.
Beyond America, only the incursion of the Barrenador worm in Libya has been known. Since the species prefer more tropical climatesthat there is little exchange of cattle between Central America and Europe, and that the measures in this last continent are very strict, the experts doubt that the plague can arrive.
In Europe there are Miosis for other types of wormsalthough they are currently quite “controlled.”
Morchón affects that in people, “this disease thrives both by the lack of hygiene and health As of health resources, factors linked to poverty and inequality “to which attention must be paid, taking into account the scientific consensus around that environmental, animal and human health go hand in hand.
