How Illegal Cattle Trafficking Is Spreading a Flesh-Eating Parasite

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03-26-2026 12:59 PM

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The Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) is leveraging GIS and real-time monitoring to uncover illegal cattle trafficking routes that are spreading deadly parasites and devastating Central America’s last remaining intact forests.

Key Takeaways

GIS maps revealed the cattle-trafficking routes spreading a flesh-eating parasite from Central America toward the US border.
Conservation efforts overlap with concerns around the screwworm crisis, calling attention to urgent biodiversity threats across Central America.
Modern monitoring methods provide real-time intelligence to authorities about illegal cattle drives’ destroying protected forests.

Check out the article on the New World Screwworm:

How Illegal Cattle Trafficking Is Spreading a Flesh-Eating Parasite

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About the Author

Nick Short has dedicated his career to integrating Esri’s GIS technology into the agricultural sector, including a seven-year tenure working with Esri’s USDA account team. With over four decades of IT experience, he has specialized in AI, business intelligence, advanced analytics, GIS, and data management. His professional journey includes senior management roles at Gartner, SAP, SAS, and several Silicon Valley start-ups. Additionally, he spent a decade at NASA Goddard, where he focused on remote sensing, high performance computing, and AI within the Earth sciences and agriculture sector.