New World screwworm was confirmed in Jim Hogg County last week, triggering a quarantine on livestock movement there. The infestation is still hundreds of miles from Nueces County, but at Horse House in Flour Bluff, owner January Goette says that distance doesn't mean the threat doesn't matter locally.
"I know Corpus isn't known to be a huge equine or cattle city, but it does affect really all of us, even your outside dogs or cats," Goette said.
Screwworm larvae feed on living flesh — not decaying tissue like a typical fly — which makes any open wound on an animal a target. Goette demonstrated how she prepares her horses to avoid getting bitten in the first place.
"This is how we have our horses dressed for summer to avoid the flies. We wanna make sure that we're covering up the belly area. And it's really important that with horses that they have their tails unbraided, because they actually use these as a fly swatter," Goette said.
Goette says any warm-blooded animal is at risk, a concern that weighs heavily given the number of animals on her property.
"We do have about 20 horses on property. We have over 40 species here in our hobby farm alone, so we have quite a bit of animals over here that we have to pay attention to," Goette said.
Her team already had a fly control protocol in place before screwworm became a widespread concern — and they are now leaning on it even harder.
"We do an outside Pyrethrin spray. It's kind of like a fly spray, it's safe for livestock and animals, so we do that. We do daily fly control on our horses, so every time we pull them out we make sure we spray them," Goette said.
Her advice for pet owners across the area is straightforward.
"Just keep an eye on your animal, right? Just look at them. If they have any bumps, cuts, scrapes, let's get those looked at. It's as easy as hydrating them a little water, cleaning their wounds with Betadine, iodine, something that has some antibiotic properties to it," Goette said.
While screwworm has not been confirmed in Nueces County, Goette encourages all pet owners to monitor their animals closely.
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