the Texas Tech University School of Veterinary Medicine

The U.S. fought the flesh-eating screwworm for decades. Now it must begin again.

The United States spent more than half a century and hundreds of millions of dollars driving the flesh-eating New World screwworm as far from its borders as possible. The species can eat the tissue of any warm-blooded animal, but it’s a particular threat to livestock and is often fatal for cattle. Some environmentally minded bioethicists have openly debated whether it would be moral to deliberately drive the screwworm into extinction.