New weapon deployed in battle to stop Key deer screwworm outbreak

Wildlife officials racing to protect endangered Key deer from a grisly outbreak of screwworm flies have added a new weapon to their arsenal: a medication pit stop. The stations are being deployed in the National Key Deer Refuge’s backcountry to treat more reclusive deer and, like the deer, are a miniature version of a method used to successfully treat domestic livestock. The stations — feeding troughs baited with sweet corn, oats and other grains and rimmed with rollers coated with an anti-parasitic — should add another layer of protection to the endangered herd which now numbers about a thousand. Since August, 130 deer have died after being infected with the screwworm larva, which burrow into wounds to feed on flesh. Read more at the Miami Herald…