“When that false information gets out, it causes significant panic,” Rollins said Tuesday, according to the Texas Tribune. “And rightly so, especially if it’s coming from elected officials and the media.”
On Wednesday, Reuters reported that McLaughlin suspected the fly was now here. He said samples taken Tuesday from two calves on a ranch in La Pryor, Texas, were being tested as possible screwworm infections, including one infection on the umbilical cord wound of one of the calves. McLaughlin said he had seen images and videos of the animals and that the larvae seen in them looked like screwworm larvae.
Reuters was shown one of the photos, which it reported as showing “multiple larvae resembling the screwworm inside a bloody circular wound on an animal,” but said it “could not immediately verify the photo.”
“At this point, it’s unconfirmed that it’s the New World screwworm,” McLaughlin told the outlet. “It looks like it, but it’s unconfirmed.”
It is unclear, for now, whether the sample the USDA reported was one of the ones McLaughlin had reported. We will update this story if additional information is reported.
