Mexican ranchers hit by flesh-eating screwworm want action on cattle smuggling

By Cassandra Garrison

TAPACHULA, Mexico (Reuters) -On a scorching afternoon in the rural heartland outside Mexico’s southern city of Tapachula near the Guatemala border, rancher Julio Herrera calls his herd back from an afternoon of grazing.

“Gate! Gate!” he hollers as the cows turn the corner from the pasture and trot instinctively to their corral.

He runs his hands under their hooves, feeling for wounds through which the deadly screwworm parasite could burrow inside their bodies. Efforts to protect his herd can only go so far, he says, until Mexico’s government steps up to tackle what he considers the core issue: illegal livestock moving unchecked across the border from Central America.

Maggots from screwworm flies burrow into the flesh of living animals, causing serious damage. Whil