Senator Marshall: We Are Confident We Can Eradicate Screwworm

Senator Marshall Joins RFD-TV & American Ag Network

Washington - U.S. Senator Roger Marshall, M.D. (R-Kansas), joined Suzanne Alexander on RFD-TV's Market Day Report and Jesse Allen on American Ag Network to discuss the New World Screwworm and the USDA's plan to eradicate it, his upcoming priorities in agriculture, and the USMCA review.

Click HERE to download the full video.

Click HERE to download the full video.

On the New World Screwworm:

"I'm asking your listeners to communicate to Americans the food supply is safe. No farmer or rancher would take this animal with a big open flesh wound to the processor - and then they're inspected again….Your farmers and ranchers know - the ones that are my age - that we had this screw worm back in the 60's and the 70's, and we have great treatments for it now. Ivermectin is one of them, there's other topicals you can apply….This is something that Secretary Rollins and I talked about before she was even sworn in, as a priority. We saw this creeping up when we saw it coming up out of the Central America, where we kept it at bay for years. As millions of people migrated to Mexico into America, we saw it migrating up as well. The previous administration wasn't as interested in it as I was, but thank goodness Secretary Rollins was on this for over a year."

On eradicating the Screwworm:

"Yeah, so again, we didn't wake up yesterday thinking about this; we've been trying to get these labs cranked up. The way you get rid of this is through these sterile male worms. So, forgive me, a little biology here. You think about the life cycle of this screw worm - it starts off as a fly, it lays its eggs in an open fleshy wound, and then those eggs become maggots….But the good news is the female screw worm fly can only mate once, and then it dies. It only mates one time, and then it dies. So, if you can mate it with a sterile male, eventually all these worms die."

"So, there's already a screwworm fly lab in Panama, producing these sterile male mosquitoes. Over a year ago, we started converting a second laboratory in Mexico to do this; it comes online next month, and it'll double the number of these sterile flies. And then, of course, we broke ground already in one in Texas. So we've got this; we know what we're doing, we've been anticipating this. I'm frustrated the previous administration wouldn't start the sterile worm fly labs, but here we are, so I think we've got this most importantly."

"I've talked to many of the ranchers, and believe it or not, we're very confident. We're very confident that we know how to treat this. And we're going to probably have to treat some animals with the ivermectin and other superficial things until we get enough of these sterile flies going. So, it probably was spread from Mexico into Texas from a deer or a coyote or some type of wild animal as well. We have the safest food inspection in the world right now; we've got all of our models up and running, we've got great veterinarians, so I feel a lot of confidence from our producers right now. And again, we want to do everything we can to keep it in Texas - but again, I think we just feel very confident that we can treat the situation and it'll never get in the food supply."

On upcoming Agriculture priorities:

"I think up here it's always about priorities - what are we working on? And to me, my top three priorities are E15, E15, and E15: getting year-round E15. And certainly, the Secretary is all on board with that. And then the next priority on my list is 45Z and getting the final rules out for that as well, so we can turn more corn into ethanol, if you will. And then after that, my next priority was USMCA. And certainly, she gets this - this is one of the sharpest people I've ever met; she's totally immersed in all, in all these types of things. We could talk about input costs and fertilizer, so we touched on that a little bit yesterday. And then fifth on my list is finishing up the farm bill. So, we have a Secretary of Agriculture totally engaged, in my humble opinion. This presidential administration has done more for rural America than anyone before him - we've added $65 billion to crop insurance, $43 billion of farm aid, and then I started talking yesterday about maybe we need to add a little more to that farm aid. So, we've got a Secretary of Agriculture who is totally engaged and immersed in rural America."

On the USMCA review:

"Well, take a deep breath here, everybody. American agriculture needs to let the president know how important USMCA is to us. The president cares about American agriculture; he cares about rural America, and 97% of rural counties voted for President Trump. So, we need to remind him how important this is for Kansas. Our exports to Mexico increased by 50%. For Kansas agriculture, Mexico and Canada have replaced China as our number one and two export markets. So, we just need to remind him of that, how important it is. He's negotiating out there, negotiating for a better deal as well. It wasn't just a couple of months ago that I took a group of farmers and ranchers to Mexico to say thank you to a really, really good customer. Remember, it's easier to keep a good customer than to go find a new one. So, the President is negotiating, and I appreciate that, but really, American agriculture needs to communicate to the White House how important USMCA is to rural America."

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