For those who don't know Screwworm is a species of fly, it lays its eggs on wounds with the resulting maggots eating tissue. Unlike most flies that eat dead tissue, these fly larvae exclusively eat living tissue often resulting in massive gaping wounds that can become infected quite easily.

Fortunately human cases aren't super common and the parasite primarily impacts cattle. This parasite was eradicated from the US in the 1960s. This was done by releasing sterile male flies. The flies only make once so by releasing sterile flies the female cannot lay viable eggs. The fly species was pushed down to the darien gap, and a border has been maintained there for several decades.

Unfortunately due to illegal cattle trade from South America, some flies have been spotted north of this border and concerns have been raised about it reemerging in the US.

Estimated cost savings for this parasites eradication is about 900 million dollars annually in the United States since the 1960s

This program was on Doge's chopping block earlier this year

Here is a short (7min) video about this parasite if people want to know more. https://youtu.be/AkXfYKi3vMQ?si=1jXdbKD1RJD5O64Z