San Antonio-area livestock sanctuary Winding Branch Ranch is taking precautions to guard against New World screwworm as cases of the parasite have cropped up in nearby counties.
“Out of an abundance of caution, we are pausing the intake of new animals for the next 14 days and will reassess at that time,” officials with the Bulverde livestock sanctuary, located 30640 Leroy Scheel Road, said in an email to supporters last week.
Speaking to the Current on the phone Tuesday, Executive Director Matthew Aversa said the rescue operation will reevaluate in a few days’ time.
“If we get one case of it, then we know that there’s more to come,” Aversa told the Current. “It’s really just a stress on our volunteers and our staff to make sure that we’re checking them over and over all day for any kind of open wounds. That’s really the biggest stress here — and trying to make sure that we don’t get any cases.”
Aversa added that, going forward, the sanctuary is likely to ban animal intakes from affected counties, which include Edwards, Zavala, La Salle, Tom Green, Gillespie and Sutton, according to a tracker provided by the Texas Tribune.
The first case was detected June 3 in a three-week-old calf in the small town of La Pryor, located an hour west of San Antonio.
And while the first known cases in Texas were calves, causing alarm for state’s $41 billion a year livestock industry, Aversa adds that any warm-blooded animal can get infected, including cats, dogs and birds. Indeed, one infected dog from New Mexico was already treated in Texas but returned to its home state, Aversa added.
Aversa said that Winding Branch Ranch and its 250-plus volunteers are monitoring the 61 farm animals in their care daily for open wounds, which is how an animal gets infected with the parasite.
Ranch staff and volunteers are also spraying the animals with Durvet, an aerosol insecticide spray specifically for the prevention of screwworm that can be purchased at Tractor Supply and other feed stores, Aversa added.
The ranch rescues a variety of farm animals, including horses, cows, goats, pigs, donkeys, chickens, ducks, emus, llamas, alpacas and other species. Some of its animals — including a large and sweet pig named Gus — are also up for adoption through its website.
Pet owners and ranchers should develop a plan of action, Aversa advised, including being in touch with their veterinarian and checking animals daily for open wounds.
“That’s where they get in, and that’s where they’re going to start eating flesh,” Aversa said on the phone. “And so you don’t want it to get to the point where your only kind of detection is smelling something wrong with your animal.”
To help local pet owners, the Ranch wrote a blog post with more detailed information, titled “What is Screwworm and How to Prepare.”
In addition to the added stress of screwworm, the Ranch is preparing for summer’s soaring temperatures. To that end, the facility successfully fundraised to pay for an upgrade to its well-water supply, which currently isn’t equipped to handle a farm of its capacity.
The ranch also has a number of summer camps and programs with space still available, including day camps, week-long summer camps such as the culinary camp Farm to Fork and the Quarterly Seed Swap.
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