About AGRicultural Defense
Our Mission
Operation Screwdriver is an Agro-Defense Campaign to confront the New World Screwworm (NSW). Screwworm is a highly destructive pest which infests and feeds on the live tissue of warm blooded animals. It is a threat to livestock, wildlife, pets and humans. An operational campaign supports national biosecurity objectives defined by USDA and SENISCA. Eradicated for decades, NWS broke through a biological barrier in Panama in 2023. It rapidly reestablished itself in Central America and Mexico. It re-entered the United States in June 2026.
History: Screwworm Eradication
During the 1930s USDA scientists researched new methods of controlling Screwworm. In the 1950s they successfully used a combination of genetics and nuclear radiation to create a unique interdiction process: Sterile Insect Technique. By the end of the 1960s NSW was largely eradicated from the US. However a massive outbreak in 1972 (right) precipitated a change to a regional strategy. That year, the US and Mexico signed an agreement to push the pest southward and maintain a permanent SIT bio-barrier to prevent northward migration. By 2002, NSW had been eradicated to the Columbian border and a SIT biological barrier established in Panama. That barrier broke down in 2023.
The Response Plan
Phase 1: Improving Surveillance
We need to build a better fly traps and improve wide area surveillance. Therefore we are building Self-reporting Wind Oriented Traps (SWOT) that incorporate the hard lessons learned from the 1970's with the sensing, analysis and reporting capabilities of the 21st century. Rapid evaluation through Field Testing of new sensors, collection platforms, communication networks, and analytical techniques, to include AI, will increase scale, scope and fidelity of collection while reducing manpower, time-to-detect reporting and confirmation.