The four most recent cases of the New World screwworm have been confirmed on the same
Texas property, marking the largest cluster of detections to be reported since the parasite was found in the US earlier this month.
Three cattle and one goat were detected to have screwworm in Terrell County, which is adjace
nt to Mexico, according to the US Department of Agriculture. All were from a single premises, the Texas Animal Health Commission said in a Wednesday email.
That brings the total number of cases in the U.S. to 19 since early June when the screwworm was originally detected in a calf in Zavala County, Texas. The outb
reak is the first in the US in a decade and the first in livestock in about 50 years, threatening the nation’s largest cattle state at a time when the country’s herd has already shrunk.
The screwworm is a fly whose larvae burrow into the wounds of warm-blooded animals, a
nd it usually spreads via the movement of infested animals. Infestations are treatable but can cause death if undetected. The screwworm poses no threat to the safety of the U.S. food supply.
Epidemiological investigations have not yet been completed on the Terrell County cases, but tracebac
ks are currently underway to determine how the infestations occurred, the commission said. There is currently a quarantine in parts of more than a dozen Texas counties, according to the commission.
“The amount varies because claims experience varies by state, and premiums reflect the cost of risk in each state. Across the country, we have also reduced au
to rates in more than 40 states, collectively saving those customers over $4.6 billion a year. New York was not one of them,” the post said, throwing support behind Hochul’s fraud-fighting plan that proposed to crack down on staged ac
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cidents and organized fraud, give insurers more time to investigate suspected fraud, and reform the serious injury threshold under New York’s no-fault system.
The reform measures ultimately approved by state lawmakers included a clarification of what constitutes a “serious injury” for the recovery of non-economic damages under New York’s no-fault law, a cap on non-economic dama
ges for drivers engaging in criminal behavior, changes to the comparative negligence law, and a crackdown on individuals responsible for organizing s
taged accidents. (Editor’s Note: Based on CM’s reading of the final approved
reform package, a proposal supported by State Farm that would have extended insurers’ time to investigate suspected no-fault fraud from 30 days to 60 days was not enacted. The existing 30-day framework remains in place.)
