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Discussion on What Are "Screwworms"?
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Posted on Monday, Apr 10, 2000 - 4:55 pm:
I just read a notice in our local equestrian newspaper that several horses imported from Venezuela were found to have screwworms. I've looked in all my "horse hypochondriac" books and can't find it listed. Does anyone know?
Thanks, Sharon
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Posted on Tuesday, Apr 11, 2000 - 10:49 am:
In the Chronicle that I got yesterday, they had a report on this. They found some screwworm larvae on a horse that had been imported (polo ponies, maybe?), but the vets took care of this horse, and, after tracking down the rest of the shipment, declared them all free of the pests. Screwworms the larvae of a fly that's about twice the size of a regular house fly, orange eyes, grayish body with 3 (?) stripes down it's back. The eggs are laid, I think, in open wounds and when they larvae emerge, they "screw" down into the flesh by eating it, leading to huge infection problems, killing the animal usually in a couple of weeks without treatment. These creatures have been irradicated from the US for a while. I don't know the scientific name for them.
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Posted on Tuesday, Apr 11, 2000 - 2:41 pm:
Genus for the American species is Calatroga.
DrO
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Posted on Wednesday, Apr 12, 2000 - 10:58 am:
Nasty critters, huh? Glad they're gone & hope they don't come back! Thanks for the info.
Sharon
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