WEBVTT - Listener Questions #17 0:00:07.920 --> 0:00:12.080 Screwworms have invaded beyond the Panama Canal. Will they infect 0:00:12.160 --> 0:00:14.880 Texas cows grazing amongst the chaparral? 0:00:15.480 --> 0:00:19.000 How would life evolve without a moon? Would we have people? 0:00:19.239 --> 0:00:20.920 Cats and funky mushrooms? 0:00:21.600 --> 0:00:24.760 How long is the wait until synthetic blood goes on sale? 0:00:24.920 --> 0:00:27.680 I promise I'm not a vampire. I'm just a little pale. 0:00:28.640 --> 0:00:31.720 Whatever question keeps you up at night, Daniel and Kelly's 0:00:31.760 --> 0:00:33.160 answer will make it all right. 0:00:33.920 --> 0:00:37.440 Welcome to another Listener Questions episode on Daniel and Kelly's 0:00:37.440 --> 0:00:38.559 Extraordinary Universe. 0:00:51.880 --> 0:00:54.840 Hi. I'm Daniel. I'm a particle physicist and I'm not 0:00:54.880 --> 0:00:57.160 a vegetarian, but I don't like to eat blood. 0:00:57.800 --> 0:00:59.240 Hello, I'm Kelly Waiter Smith. 0:00:59.280 --> 0:01:02.560 I study Paris and space and I also am not 0:01:02.720 --> 0:01:05.040 a big fan of eating blood. What are those blood 0:01:05.080 --> 0:01:09.240 sausages or whatever that are popular in the UK? Yeah, 0:01:09.280 --> 0:01:11.800 I can't do that, or at least I've never tried. 0:01:11.840 --> 0:01:13.920 Maybe I'd like it, but I can't get myself to 0:01:13.959 --> 0:01:14.280 try it. 0:01:15.560 --> 0:01:18.960 There's some line for me between like normal muscle and 0:01:19.080 --> 0:01:21.200 like the rest of the body and the blood and 0:01:21.240 --> 0:01:24.280 the brain and the guts and stuff. It just creeps me. 0:01:24.319 --> 0:01:28.280 Out though. Katrina has a friend who's big into cooking organs, 0:01:28.520 --> 0:01:30.680 and she has a website. I think it's called Awful 0:01:30.880 --> 0:01:32.600 Recipes o ffal. 0:01:35.240 --> 0:01:37.880 You know, I feel like it's actually a deficit of 0:01:37.920 --> 0:01:40.800 my character that I'm not into eating more of the animal, 0:01:40.920 --> 0:01:43.720 because I do feel like, yeah, that if you're going 0:01:43.760 --> 0:01:46.319 to take another animal's life, you really should make the 0:01:46.319 --> 0:01:47.280 most of it. 0:01:47.360 --> 0:01:49.640 But I just really have problems with the texture and stuff. 0:01:49.680 --> 0:01:51.400 So my solution has been to try to cut down 0:01:51.400 --> 0:01:53.040 on meat as much as I can. 0:01:53.280 --> 0:01:55.920 No, I totally agree it feels weird to just throw 0:01:55.920 --> 0:01:58.520 away parts of an animal because you're like, oh, ichy, 0:01:58.960 --> 0:02:01.160 and when really the whole thing is kind of ikey 0:02:01.200 --> 0:02:03.639 if you think about it too much, which we all should. 0:02:03.720 --> 0:02:05.640 We all all should be thinking about it too much 0:02:05.680 --> 0:02:07.400 and feeling okay about our choices. 0:02:07.440 --> 0:02:09.200 That's right, Yes, we should think through our choices. 0:02:09.200 --> 0:02:11.120 It's so easy to be separated from the food that 0:02:11.160 --> 0:02:13.720 you eat and not think through the implications of what's 0:02:13.760 --> 0:02:14.400 happening there. 0:02:14.560 --> 0:02:18.360 But nobody's gonna have an appetite after this episode anyway, right, Kelly, 0:02:19.240 --> 0:02:20.400 I'm here to help. 0:02:20.639 --> 0:02:24.639 All right, So let's jump right into question number one 0:02:24.680 --> 0:02:27.600 from John, this is a topic I've been wanted an 0:02:27.639 --> 0:02:30.520 excuse to dig into for a while, and so let's 0:02:30.560 --> 0:02:36.280 hear what disgusting thing John wanted to know about. Well, friends, 0:02:36.360 --> 0:02:38.200 At this point in the episode, we thought we were 0:02:38.240 --> 0:02:40.840 going to drop an audio file where our friend John 0:02:40.960 --> 0:02:44.840 reads his questions. But sometimes an audience member will send 0:02:44.840 --> 0:02:48.040 a question and then they disappear. Maybe they've moved away, 0:02:48.120 --> 0:02:51.200 maybe they're busy, hopefully they're well. We never got the 0:02:51.240 --> 0:02:53.400 audio file, so I'm going to go ahead and read 0:02:53.560 --> 0:02:56.960 the question from John. Here we go, Please do a 0:02:57.000 --> 0:02:59.880 segment on the current situation at the South border concern 0:03:00.160 --> 0:03:03.040 cattle and the re emergence of the parasitic fly and 0:03:03.080 --> 0:03:07.560 their maggot offspring known as screwworms. Is the current embargo 0:03:07.639 --> 0:03:11.880 something worth worrying about? Will it spread across the border regardless. 0:03:11.240 --> 0:03:11.799 Of what we do? 0:03:12.320 --> 0:03:15.840 Are there any human diseases related to the parasite after 0:03:16.040 --> 0:03:20.080 eliminating them back fifty sixty years ago? How did it 0:03:20.120 --> 0:03:22.520 become a problem again? Catching us by surprise? 0:03:23.080 --> 0:03:29.880 Thanks? Oh man, Daniel, all right, nobody. 0:03:30.919 --> 0:03:33.040 Why were you so excited to get this question? 0:03:33.200 --> 0:03:34.040 Kelly? 0:03:34.280 --> 0:03:37.280 Well, because I had been hearing about screwworms for a while, 0:03:37.320 --> 0:03:38.960 but had never really dug in, and so they were 0:03:38.960 --> 0:03:41.880 on sort of like the periphery of my consciousness. And 0:03:41.920 --> 0:03:44.240 I was like, oh great, now there's a new parasite 0:03:44.240 --> 0:03:48.200 that I have an excuse to learn about. But I 0:03:48.520 --> 0:03:51.320 what is a really good word for? Like I'm begging, 0:03:51.720 --> 0:03:57.320 I beseech you. I beseech you do not look up 0:03:57.400 --> 0:04:00.920 pictures of screwworm or like what screwworm does to people, 0:04:01.040 --> 0:04:04.040 because the photos have to Oh god, it's really horrible. 0:04:04.400 --> 0:04:06.640 And if you do, we will go ahead and record 0:04:06.720 --> 0:04:09.960 some video so that we can put your reaction up 0:04:10.000 --> 0:04:14.440 on Blue Sky and our Instagram accounts because it's really horrifying. 0:04:14.480 --> 0:04:16.520 So so let me go into the life cycle before 0:04:16.720 --> 0:04:17.520 we do anything else. 0:04:17.560 --> 0:04:19.880 Okay, tell us what is this thing? Basically, because I 0:04:19.920 --> 0:04:22.040 know just because it's called a screw worm doesn't mean 0:04:22.080 --> 0:04:22.640 it's a worm. 0:04:22.880 --> 0:04:23.520 It's not a worm. 0:04:23.520 --> 0:04:25.480 It's called the screw worm, doesn't mean it screws anything. 0:04:25.600 --> 0:04:28.039 So what is it? And how does it live? 0:04:28.279 --> 0:04:31.320 It is not a worm, but it does screw, So 0:04:31.440 --> 0:04:34.919 it is this we're talking about the new World screw worm. 0:04:35.200 --> 0:04:38.160 There is another species in the quote unquote old world. 0:04:38.960 --> 0:04:41.800 And so the deal here is it's a fly. Mom 0:04:42.240 --> 0:04:45.800 lays her eggs around the edges of wounds or on 0:04:45.920 --> 0:04:48.600 mucous membrane, so like around your eyes or in your 0:04:48.600 --> 0:04:52.039 mouth and stuff. I know, I know, bad start bad start. 0:04:52.880 --> 0:04:56.880 The eggs hatch and the larva like the baby's hatch 0:04:56.880 --> 0:04:59.359 out of the eggs, and then they start screwing into 0:04:59.400 --> 0:05:01.640 the flesh to get into the flesh to eat it. 0:05:01.680 --> 0:05:03.560 And that's why they're called screw worms. I guess they 0:05:03.560 --> 0:05:07.000 sort of screw in the way a screw screws into wood. 0:05:07.320 --> 0:05:08.920 Why did they screw? I mean, they can't just like 0:05:09.000 --> 0:05:11.000 chew their way in like any normal parasite. 0:05:11.240 --> 0:05:12.400 I mean, I guess they're doing both. 0:05:12.440 --> 0:05:14.640 But also a lot of parasites aren't like chewing their 0:05:14.680 --> 0:05:17.840 way through flesh. So for example, you know, hookworms have 0:05:18.000 --> 0:05:20.160 like hooked mouths and they sort of bite down, but 0:05:20.200 --> 0:05:22.080 they're not like kind of chewing their way through and 0:05:22.120 --> 0:05:25.040 migrating through the flesh, whereas screw worms are migrating through 0:05:25.080 --> 0:05:27.600 the flesh, which is really truly horrible. 0:05:27.760 --> 0:05:29.920 Why are they migrating through? Like where did they want 0:05:29.960 --> 0:05:32.680 to go? I happen to be between them and their destination. 0:05:32.960 --> 0:05:35.800 Well, no, they've consumed the flesh, they're done with it. 0:05:35.839 --> 0:05:37.919 They want more flesh, and so they're screwing in to 0:05:37.960 --> 0:05:40.039 get more of it. And so, you know, we talked 0:05:40.080 --> 0:05:44.320 in a previous episode about maggots that specifically ate dead tissue, 0:05:44.320 --> 0:05:48.159 and so they were useful for cleaning out wounds. But 0:05:48.480 --> 0:05:53.400 these flies are specifically eating the live tissue. Wow, and 0:05:53.440 --> 0:05:57.240 they are not pleasant. So they screw in, they eat. 0:05:57.960 --> 0:06:00.760 When they're done eating, they fall out and off the 0:06:00.800 --> 0:06:01.880 host onto the ground. 0:06:02.080 --> 0:06:02.400 All right. 0:06:02.560 --> 0:06:04.440 They do a stage called pew. 0:06:04.200 --> 0:06:07.960 Painting, and then when they hatch, they emerge as adults 0:06:08.120 --> 0:06:12.320 who go off in search of more flesh to lay 0:06:12.360 --> 0:06:13.200 their eggs on. 0:06:13.520 --> 0:06:15.919 How come nobody call these like zombie flies or something? 0:06:17.360 --> 0:06:20.800 So we usually reserve the word zombie. 0:06:22.040 --> 0:06:25.680 For instances where a host behavior is being sort of 0:06:25.720 --> 0:06:29.200 like manipulated in a way that benefits the parasite at 0:06:29.240 --> 0:06:30.159 the expense of the host. 0:06:30.560 --> 0:06:33.080 I love this. They're like semi official rules in biology 0:06:33.080 --> 0:06:34.279 for what you can call a zombie. 0:06:34.480 --> 0:06:36.600 Oh no, no, there's a lot of fighting over this. 0:06:36.720 --> 0:06:39.120 There are people who feel like you shouldn't be using 0:06:39.240 --> 0:06:41.520 the phrase zombie at all because you're just going to 0:06:41.560 --> 0:06:43.880 confuse the public. They're not coming back from the dead. 0:06:44.040 --> 0:06:46.000 I feel like the public gets that, like you need 0:06:46.040 --> 0:06:47.280 to give them a little bit more credit. 0:06:47.360 --> 0:06:50.200 But are there similar rules for like werewolf or mummy. 0:06:51.279 --> 0:06:51.960 I don't think so. 0:06:53.120 --> 0:06:55.560 No, no, all right, so it's a free for folks. 0:06:55.800 --> 0:06:57.680 If you discover something, feel free to call it a 0:06:57.680 --> 0:06:58.040 where way. 0:06:58.080 --> 0:06:59.880 Oh no, no, there are there are a fit mum, 0:07:01.200 --> 0:07:04.799 and so they essentially shells of their former self because 0:07:04.839 --> 0:07:08.080 parasites have like eaten their insides and stuff, and they're 0:07:08.120 --> 0:07:10.000 like pale relative to the others. I don't know too 0:07:10.080 --> 0:07:12.720 much about aphan mummies anyway, So to get back on track, 0:07:12.960 --> 0:07:17.880 I ended up watching a video lecture that veterinarians are 0:07:17.920 --> 0:07:21.080 supposed to watch to get like, you know, credit for 0:07:21.360 --> 0:07:24.600 their requirements for their field about screwworms, and they were like, 0:07:24.640 --> 0:07:27.840 sometimes it'll just be like a pinprick hole in an animal, 0:07:27.880 --> 0:07:30.280 because like you know, dogs and stuff can get this too, 0:07:30.720 --> 0:07:32.520 and you just have to feel the hole and you 0:07:32.560 --> 0:07:35.320 feel the worms moving around inside. So it's not even 0:07:35.320 --> 0:07:37.680 that it's like a big anyway, super gross. 0:07:37.800 --> 0:07:39.440 So you can be walking around with like a sack 0:07:39.480 --> 0:07:41.800 of these worms inside you. 0:07:41.200 --> 0:07:44.400 You would know, But yes, the answer is yes. So 0:07:44.840 --> 0:07:47.520 females lay something like two hundred to three hundred eggs 0:07:47.560 --> 0:07:49.200 at a time, and they can lay two to four 0:07:49.240 --> 0:07:52.440 batches in their lifetime, so you can pretty quickly once 0:07:52.480 --> 0:07:54.880 you have an open wound, it attracts. 0:07:54.760 --> 0:07:56.920 More screwflies or more screw worms. 0:07:57.320 --> 0:07:59.000 So if you're in an area where there's a lot 0:07:59.040 --> 0:08:01.760 of screwworms, you can pretty quickly build up a life 0:08:01.880 --> 0:08:05.240 threatening illness because they're just eating so much of you. 0:08:05.720 --> 0:08:07.960 Or you can get secondary infections because now you have 0:08:08.000 --> 0:08:10.760 this growing wounds that can you know, acquire bacteria and 0:08:10.800 --> 0:08:11.520 you die that way. 0:08:12.280 --> 0:08:13.800 So it's truly awful. 0:08:14.080 --> 0:08:16.040 And what do they usually eat? Is it mostly people 0:08:16.120 --> 0:08:18.679 or is it dogs? Are they totally indiscriminate. 0:08:18.320 --> 0:08:20.440 Anything they can really get their hands on, So quite 0:08:20.440 --> 0:08:25.120 often they're going after livestock or they can go after wildlife. 0:08:25.160 --> 0:08:27.400 Sometimes you find it in pets and occasionally you will 0:08:27.440 --> 0:08:28.200 find it in people. 0:08:28.520 --> 0:08:31.040 And do they have the same preference for flesh as 0:08:31.120 --> 0:08:33.880 Kelly does, like do they prefer the muscle or they 0:08:33.920 --> 0:08:37.000 eat you know, organs and eyeballs and any sorts of things. 0:08:37.520 --> 0:08:41.720 So I don't preferentially eat wounds on animals and they 0:08:41.760 --> 0:08:44.320 have a tendency also to go form mucus membranes and 0:08:44.400 --> 0:08:47.480 like genitalia stuff like that, and so I would say 0:08:47.040 --> 0:08:52.400 they do not have similar preferences to Kelly. 0:08:53.120 --> 0:08:55.080 I'm not trying to put you together in a category. 0:08:55.080 --> 0:08:56.440 It's just using you as an example. 0:08:56.920 --> 0:08:59.800 I'm feeling a little insulted, but I'm gonna I really 0:08:59.840 --> 0:09:01.920 like parasites enough that I'm going to rise above and 0:09:01.960 --> 0:09:04.720 decide that to compliment. But so this used to be 0:09:04.960 --> 0:09:07.160 in the United States. It was a huge problem. Like 0:09:07.200 --> 0:09:10.319 in nineteen thirty five, one hundred and eighty thousand cattle 0:09:10.440 --> 0:09:14.280 died in Texas alone from this parasite. So you typically 0:09:14.320 --> 0:09:17.160 find it in South and Central America, and it was 0:09:17.200 --> 0:09:20.320 in North America for a while. Tended to be in 0:09:20.360 --> 0:09:23.600 the Southern States because that stage that lives off of 0:09:23.760 --> 0:09:28.080 the animals is cold sensitive, so if it freezes, that 0:09:28.200 --> 0:09:30.480 kills them, but they can come back during the summer, 0:09:30.520 --> 0:09:32.520 so you can still get them pretty far north, just 0:09:32.559 --> 0:09:36.840 depending on where they've managed to travel. But this was 0:09:36.880 --> 0:09:40.000 such a big problem for agriculture that the United States said, 0:09:40.160 --> 0:09:42.360 all right, we absolutely need to do something about this. 0:09:42.760 --> 0:09:44.960 And so what they did was they developed in nineteen 0:09:45.040 --> 0:09:49.199 fifty eight, what's still called the sterile insect technique. 0:09:49.559 --> 0:09:51.200 And this is something I think you might enjoy. 0:09:51.280 --> 0:09:55.480 So essentially, they they get the flies, they can well 0:09:55.559 --> 0:09:56.520 wait for it, wait for it. 0:09:56.640 --> 0:09:58.520 I love hearing about sterility as a rule. 0:09:58.600 --> 0:10:00.839 So yeah, oh yeah, well I know that's a thing 0:10:00.880 --> 0:10:05.200 for you. I don't know you started this path. I 0:10:05.280 --> 0:10:06.199 just took the next step. 0:10:07.640 --> 0:10:09.959 Well, what is a sterile insect technique? 0:10:10.120 --> 0:10:12.880 Okay, So they take a stage of the flies and 0:10:12.920 --> 0:10:16.440 they expose them to radiation, and in particular, they're exposing 0:10:16.440 --> 0:10:20.960 them to low doses of cobalt and this essentially sterilizes 0:10:21.000 --> 0:10:25.600 the male flies and then they release loads of male 0:10:25.640 --> 0:10:27.640 flies out there. And the thing that you need to 0:10:27.679 --> 0:10:30.960 know about screwworms is that the females only mate once 0:10:31.040 --> 0:10:34.520 in their life, even though they're laying multiple clutches of eggs. 0:10:35.040 --> 0:10:38.760 So if a female mates with one of these irradiated males, 0:10:39.360 --> 0:10:43.240 the eggs that she lays will not hatch. And so 0:10:43.400 --> 0:10:46.719 by doing this, you essentially are like pulling females out 0:10:46.760 --> 0:10:49.040 of the population, like they still exist, but they're not 0:10:49.120 --> 0:10:54.160 making any viable eggs. And so every generation you put 0:10:54.280 --> 0:10:56.880 more sterile males out there, and over time you can 0:10:56.960 --> 0:11:00.319 drop the population down to zero using. 0:11:00.080 --> 0:11:02.160 This method, down to zero, really. 0:11:01.960 --> 0:11:02.480 Down to zero. 0:11:02.600 --> 0:11:05.080 So actually we started doing this in nineteen fifty eight, 0:11:05.120 --> 0:11:08.480 and by nineteen sixty six the United States was free 0:11:08.920 --> 0:11:10.079 of New World screwworm? 0:11:10.320 --> 0:11:12.240 How do you get down to zero? I understand that 0:11:12.280 --> 0:11:15.680 you can suppress the population because you have some males 0:11:15.720 --> 0:11:17.880 that are sterile, But as long as you have any 0:11:18.160 --> 0:11:20.360 males that are not sterile, won't you keep getting some 0:11:20.400 --> 0:11:21.240 more screw worms. 0:11:21.520 --> 0:11:24.440 They do this generation after generation after generation, and they 0:11:24.480 --> 0:11:27.360 swamp the population with these sterile males. And so they're 0:11:27.360 --> 0:11:31.640 literally like loading up airplanes and dropping airplanes full of 0:11:32.000 --> 0:11:34.480 no no, no, no, This is how they distribute the 0:11:34.520 --> 0:11:38.040 screw worms. They drop airplanes full of these sterile insects. 0:11:38.240 --> 0:11:41.680 If anything is going to inspire conspiracy theories about the government, 0:11:41.960 --> 0:11:46.200 then like dropping airplane loads of intentionally irradiated flies on 0:11:46.280 --> 0:11:46.959 the population. 0:11:47.240 --> 0:11:48.760 Wow, flesh eating flies. 0:11:48.840 --> 0:11:52.520 Yeah, that's right, eating irradiated flies. Oh my gosh. All right, 0:11:52.800 --> 0:11:55.680 but it's good for you, folks, really, it's in your interest. 0:11:55.840 --> 0:11:57.559 Trust us, trust the scientists. 0:11:57.880 --> 0:12:04.120 So all right, so they did this and it worked amazingly. 0:12:04.360 --> 0:12:05.719 Ya science M M. 0:12:06.400 --> 0:12:10.000 But the problem was that screwworm was still present in Mexico, 0:12:10.600 --> 0:12:13.400 and so it kept getting across the southern border, and 0:12:13.440 --> 0:12:15.880 so this problem didn't go away. So we decided, okay, 0:12:15.880 --> 0:12:18.520 you know what, We're going to eradicate screw worm from 0:12:18.520 --> 0:12:21.520 Mexico as well. Yeah, and so they started, with the 0:12:21.559 --> 0:12:25.200 Mexican government's permission. This was a collaboration. They started dropping 0:12:25.280 --> 0:12:29.320 plane folds of sterile screw worms over Mexico and by 0:12:29.400 --> 0:12:33.440 nineteen ninety one, Mexico was free of screwworm. Yay, which 0:12:33.440 --> 0:12:36.520 is amazing. And so they ended up marching screw worm 0:12:36.679 --> 0:12:40.960 back farther and farther and farther until screwworm was only 0:12:41.000 --> 0:12:44.120 found on the southern side of the Panama Canal. 0:12:44.240 --> 0:12:46.320 This seems like such good news. It must be ironic 0:12:46.440 --> 0:12:49.360 foreshadowing for some terrible twist you're about to drop on us. 0:12:50.240 --> 0:12:52.600 I mean, this is no this is good news, full stop. 0:12:52.679 --> 0:12:52.920 Okay. 0:12:52.960 --> 0:12:56.160 There were like decades where we were completely without screw worms. 0:12:56.280 --> 0:12:59.680 It's amazing, like go science. And so Panama has this 0:12:59.679 --> 0:13:03.599 facil where they're constantly making these sterile insect males and 0:13:03.640 --> 0:13:07.320 they're constantly dropping them in the Panama Canal region to 0:13:07.320 --> 0:13:09.319 try to make sure that screw worm doesn't make its 0:13:09.360 --> 0:13:11.400 way back up again, because it's still present south of 0:13:11.400 --> 0:13:12.160 the Panama Canal. 0:13:12.240 --> 0:13:14.360 Why don't the South American governments do this as well 0:13:14.400 --> 0:13:15.600 so we can eradicate this guy. 0:13:15.760 --> 0:13:17.360 Yeah, that's a great question. I don't know. 0:13:17.520 --> 0:13:20.960 I don't know if it's too expensive or what. But 0:13:21.720 --> 0:13:24.960 the countries that did eradicate it had American help and 0:13:25.000 --> 0:13:27.640 collaboration to sort of scale up to keep this going. 0:13:28.720 --> 0:13:31.160 But it's kind of amazing that it hasn't gotten past 0:13:31.280 --> 0:13:34.360 because we move a lot of animals around, you know, 0:13:34.559 --> 0:13:37.280 and so like in two thousand, a gelding, which is 0:13:37.280 --> 0:13:38.640 like a kind of horse but I don't know much 0:13:38.640 --> 0:13:41.800 about horses because I hate horses, was imported. 0:13:41.960 --> 0:13:44.600 Well, technically, it's a sterilized male horse. 0:13:44.720 --> 0:13:45.319 Okay, thank you. 0:13:45.360 --> 0:13:47.120 Sterilized surgically oh ye, not. 0:13:47.120 --> 0:13:51.240 With radiation, not with cobalt. Oh no, snip snip okay, 0:13:51.280 --> 0:13:51.559 got it. 0:13:51.600 --> 0:13:51.880 Got it. 0:13:51.920 --> 0:13:55.080 So a snip snipped mail horse was brought to Florida 0:13:55.120 --> 0:13:58.400 from South America, and as it was coming across the border, 0:13:58.400 --> 0:14:00.800 it was discovered that it had screw and it went 0:14:00.800 --> 0:14:04.760 into quarantine, got treated, and so it didn't spread yay. 0:14:05.320 --> 0:14:07.640 In two thousand and seven, a dog from Trinidad was 0:14:07.679 --> 0:14:10.760 sent to Florida and it had screwworm larva you know, 0:14:10.880 --> 0:14:12.280 snacking behind its eyes. 0:14:12.520 --> 0:14:14.560 Oh god, I know, I know. 0:14:14.720 --> 0:14:17.360 And the dog made it to Mississippi and so it 0:14:17.400 --> 0:14:20.880 could have been spreading it, but a veterinarian in Mississippi 0:14:20.920 --> 0:14:24.400 found them, reported it. It was controlled, it got treated, 0:14:24.440 --> 0:14:26.160 the dog lived, It didn't spread. 0:14:26.080 --> 0:14:28.120 Amazing, but it feels like fingers in the dike. 0:14:28.400 --> 0:14:30.880 Yes, yeah, it does, right. So in twenty sixteen, there 0:14:30.920 --> 0:14:33.240 was an outbreak in the Florida Keys. We don't know 0:14:33.320 --> 0:14:36.000 how screw worm made it to the Florida Keys, but 0:14:36.120 --> 0:14:38.160 it got there and it ended up in the key 0:14:38.200 --> 0:14:41.600 deer population, which is an endangered subspecies of white tailed 0:14:41.600 --> 0:14:44.440 deer that you find in that area, and one hundred 0:14:44.480 --> 0:14:46.440 and thirty five of them died. That was about ten 0:14:46.440 --> 0:14:51.280 percent of the population. It also infected dogs, pet pigs, cats, 0:14:51.320 --> 0:14:52.040 in a raccoon. 0:14:52.520 --> 0:14:53.800 I know, super sad. 0:14:54.200 --> 0:14:57.320 But we put sterile males out and we were able 0:14:57.360 --> 0:15:00.480 to get it under control again. So using that steril 0:15:00.520 --> 0:15:04.360 insect technique, we wiped it back out again. But this 0:15:04.560 --> 0:15:07.880 current outbreak, as I understand. It is the most concerning 0:15:07.880 --> 0:15:11.480 outbreak that's happened so far. So screwworm has managed to 0:15:11.600 --> 0:15:14.200 jump above the Panama Canal. I don't think we know 0:15:14.280 --> 0:15:16.960 how it happened, and it has been sort of creeping 0:15:17.000 --> 0:15:21.080 its way back up, heading into Mexico and getting close 0:15:21.160 --> 0:15:24.480 to the border. So Zach was just in Texas visiting 0:15:24.520 --> 0:15:26.440 his family and he said that they they were like 0:15:26.480 --> 0:15:30.840 commercials about you know, watch out for screwworm. Check your animals, 0:15:30.960 --> 0:15:32.560 keep an eye out, because we really want to make 0:15:32.560 --> 0:15:34.160 sure this thing doesn't establish here. 0:15:34.520 --> 0:15:36.200 Check your eyeballs, Check your eyeballs. 0:15:36.240 --> 0:15:36.920 Oh gross. 0:15:37.080 --> 0:15:39.320 So it's been estimated that if it takes hold in 0:15:39.320 --> 0:15:42.040 the US, it could cost over one and a quarter 0:15:42.160 --> 0:15:44.840 billion dollars to eradicate it from the US if we 0:15:44.880 --> 0:15:47.600 had to deal with this again. It was recently announced 0:15:47.640 --> 0:15:49.520 that eight and a half million dollars is going to 0:15:49.560 --> 0:15:53.680 go to building another facility to raise sterile mail insects 0:15:54.120 --> 0:15:56.240 in Texas and then they're going to work with the 0:15:56.240 --> 0:15:59.320 Panama facility to try to wipe screw worm out between 0:15:59.600 --> 0:16:02.280 Panama and the US and the areas where it's taken hold. 0:16:02.840 --> 0:16:05.880 So they are putting a lot of energy and money 0:16:05.880 --> 0:16:08.440 into trying to tackle this because it would be a 0:16:08.440 --> 0:16:10.000 big deal if it got across the border. 0:16:10.120 --> 0:16:12.160 I really hope they tackle it before it gets to 0:16:12.280 --> 0:16:12.680 my house. 0:16:12.960 --> 0:16:15.480 Yes, absolutely, Well, you know, they probably don't want to 0:16:15.480 --> 0:16:17.640 go to California anyway, because it's like kind of a 0:16:17.640 --> 0:16:18.320 boring place. 0:16:18.600 --> 0:16:20.400 I'm more worried about Virginia. 0:16:20.520 --> 0:16:23.520 But they don't like mountains, they don't like oceans, they 0:16:23.520 --> 0:16:26.680 don't like beautiful weather. You're right, they should head to Virginia. 0:16:26.840 --> 0:16:30.160 Oh yeah, We've got much better wildlife here, and I'm 0:16:30.200 --> 0:16:33.680 sure the wildlife is delicious, and so, you know, come 0:16:33.760 --> 0:16:34.320 to Virginia. 0:16:34.400 --> 0:16:35.080 This got weird. 0:16:35.480 --> 0:16:41.560 So well, Virginia will change our motto from a Virginia 0:16:41.640 --> 0:16:45.840 is for lovers to Virginia is for screw worms. But anyway, 0:16:46.400 --> 0:16:50.119 so John wanted to know, should we worry about this problem? 0:16:50.400 --> 0:16:51.920 I'm already worrying. Yes. 0:16:52.160 --> 0:16:54.480 Yeah, the answer is yes we should worry, and people 0:16:54.520 --> 0:16:57.400 are worrying and taking what seems to be appropriate measures 0:16:57.400 --> 0:17:00.720 to me, And are there any human disease is related 0:17:00.720 --> 0:17:03.720 to this parasite? I wasn't able to find any. So 0:17:03.760 --> 0:17:07.240 the parasite can infect and live in people, and that's horrible. 0:17:07.600 --> 0:17:10.080 But I don't think it spreads any diseases as far 0:17:10.080 --> 0:17:12.879 as I was able to tell. And how did it 0:17:12.920 --> 0:17:15.720 manage to catch us by surprise? I would say it 0:17:15.720 --> 0:17:19.040 didn't catch us by surprise. Monitoring for this is pretty widespread, 0:17:19.520 --> 0:17:22.280 and we've been constantly sort of working to keep this 0:17:22.320 --> 0:17:23.560 below the southern border. 0:17:24.480 --> 0:17:27.400 To be honest, I am amazed and. 0:17:27.520 --> 0:17:31.200 Very proud of our efforts that it hasn't gotten above 0:17:31.240 --> 0:17:34.080 Panama more often like this. It's incredible that we've been 0:17:34.080 --> 0:17:36.800 able to control it to the extent that we have. So, 0:17:37.440 --> 0:17:39.720 you know, something just managed to move across the border 0:17:39.720 --> 0:17:41.960 that was infected by screwworm and we're on it again. 0:17:42.000 --> 0:17:44.960 This is probably unless we completely remove screwworm from the 0:17:44.960 --> 0:17:47.280 face of the planet, this is something we're just always 0:17:47.280 --> 0:17:49.560 going to have to deal with happening from time to time, 0:17:49.840 --> 0:17:50.639 would be my guess. 0:17:50.960 --> 0:17:52.760 Well, let me take the other side of this. Let 0:17:52.840 --> 0:17:56.560 me be the screw worm advocate. You know, many things 0:17:56.680 --> 0:17:59.400 are unpleasant or heat or gross, but then it turns 0:17:59.440 --> 0:18:03.240 out they serve some positive function in the ecosystem. If 0:18:03.240 --> 0:18:05.920 we remove screwworm from the Earth, we just like delete 0:18:06.000 --> 0:18:09.240 all of them. Is there some beautiful critter that like 0:18:09.320 --> 0:18:11.600 eats screw worms. It's no longer going to be around. 0:18:11.800 --> 0:18:15.199 No, no, So I don't actually know the answer, But 0:18:15.240 --> 0:18:17.840 what I can tell you is that for decades we 0:18:17.960 --> 0:18:22.200 have managed to eradicate screwworm from North America and most 0:18:22.200 --> 0:18:26.439 of Central America, and we haven't seen ecosystems collapse or 0:18:26.480 --> 0:18:28.400 something like that, you know. So it's possible that there 0:18:28.520 --> 0:18:32.719 is that birds really liked eating screw worms and they 0:18:32.760 --> 0:18:33.440 have a little bit. 0:18:33.359 --> 0:18:34.120 Less food to eat. 0:18:34.440 --> 0:18:36.879 Yeah, but I think this is one of those things 0:18:36.920 --> 0:18:41.520 where as a pro human individual, I think that any 0:18:41.560 --> 0:18:45.639 ecosystem costs would be worth it because otherwise that you know, 0:18:45.680 --> 0:18:48.679 the costs for our livestock and our pets and for 0:18:49.040 --> 0:18:52.680 you know, endangered species like the key deer, it would 0:18:52.720 --> 0:18:54.320 be better to not have it around. 0:18:54.240 --> 0:18:56.600 And then Kelly wouldn't have to think about gross pictures 0:18:56.640 --> 0:18:58.160 online as she eats her hamburger. 0:18:58.359 --> 0:19:00.840 My god, it was a horrible photo of like the 0:19:00.880 --> 0:19:03.320 head of a key dear that I won't I'll stop, 0:19:03.440 --> 0:19:28.679 So John, thank you for this fascinating question and go science. Okay, 0:19:29.240 --> 0:19:32.720