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Baja California Sur remains free of the New World screwworm fly, state agriculture secretary José Alfredo Bermúdez Beltrán confirmed Thursday. Active surveillance continues at airports and the Guerrero Negro checkpoint that controls vehicle access to the peninsula, and officials plan a simulation exercise during the first week of June to prepare field technicians for a potential detection.
The state has secured 12 million pesos (about $600,000 USD) in federal funding for screwworm prevention. An additional 4 million pesos (roughly $200,000 USD) is expected from the state government, bringing the combined budget to approximately 16 million pesos ($800,000 USD).
Why the Screwworm Threat Matters in BCS
The New World screwworm, the larval stage of the Cochliomyia hominivorax fly, burrows into the living tissue of warm-blooded animals, causing painful wounds that can be fatal if untreated. The pest was eradicated from the United States decades ago through a sterile-insect program, but it has resurged across parts of Mexico and Central America in recent months.
Baja California Sur does not export cattle directly to the United States. Instead, ranchers ship livestock to Mexicali and Hermosillo for onward sale across the border. A confirmed screwworm detection in BCS would shut down that route entirely. Nationally, producers forced to sell domestically instead of exporting have lost an estimated $300 per animal.
Hurricane Season Raises the Stakes
State officials warned that hurricane-season winds could carry the fly from Nayarit, where screwworm is already present, across the Sea of Cortez to the peninsula. That risk makes the coming months a critical window for early detection.
Guerrero Negro, located roughly halfway down the peninsula at the border between Baja California and Baja California Sur, serves as the state’s primary land-based inspection point. Vehicles and livestock trailers entering BCS from the north must pass through the checkpoint, where inspectors screen for pests and prohibited agricultural products.
Across the border in Baja California, lawmakers voted in May to join a nationwide legislative effort to combat the screwworm outbreak. At the federal level in the U.S., USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) has shifted its sterile-fly barrier zone into southern Texas and continues to release sterile flies to push the pest back from border areas.
The June drill in BCS will test the state’s readiness to contain a hypothetical outbreak, from initial sample collection to quarantine protocols. The announcement was first reported by The Cabo Post.