Currently, the New World Screwworm (NWS) remains in the eradication stage with incidences of positive cases in all the provinces of Panama except for the Guna Yala Region. By december 4th, Panama has a total of 22,611 positive cases, while at the regional level there is presence of NWS in Costa Rica with a total of 11,627 cases since the declaration of the outbreak, in Nicaragua there have been 6,436 cases, in Honduras 105 cases, in Guatemala 32 cases and Mexico only 2 cases of NWS to date.

The emergency response is based on three fundamental pillars:

• Increase production of sterile pupae from 20 million to 91,864,779 million per week.
• Increased aerial and ground release, with a total of 24 weekly flights in Nicaragua and Guatemala that average a dispersion of more than 93,161,195 million sterile flies.
• Surveillance in field that includes visits to farms, increase in animal mobilization control posts (CMA) and increase in health education through trainings in communities, schools and farmers promoting appropriate sanitary practices.

Considering the previous points, to have better control of the worms and for the eradication measures to be effective, the active participation of producers and the population is important, promoting good livestock practices such as: inspecting, checking animals, healing the injuries, transport only healthy animals and immediately report cases of worms.

Let’s remember that NWS affects all warm-blooded animals, including humans, and a WhatsApp line 6670-6124, a call line 800-2673 and the social networks @copegamerica have been enabled to report cases.