Veterinarian highlights New World screwworm as a key policy concern

New World screwworm is one of the policy issues veterinary professionals should be watching, according to Dilara Kiran, DVM, MS. During the 2026 AVMA Convention in Anaheim, California, Kiran spoke with dvm360 about emerging policy topics affecting the profession. In this video, she explains why veterinarians should think beyond federal policymaking, discusses the importance of engagement at the local, state, and national levels, and highlights New World screwworm as an example of why proactive policy and regulation matter.

Below is a partial transcript, which has been lightly edited for clarity.

Dilara Kiran, DVM, MS: My name is Dr Dilara Kiran, and I wear a couple of different hats right now. I am an associate veterinarian in a small animal general practice in Colorado with NVA [National Veterinary Associates]. I am the editor in chief of the Journal of Science Policy & Governance, which focuses on early-career individuals publishing policy-related pieces and manuscripts, and I also serve on the Women's Veterinary Leadership Development Initiative board of directors.

I became involved in policy almost 10 years ago now, starting as a student who was really seeing that there was a public distrust of science coming out. There weren't a lot of opportunities for connection, communication, getting some of these skills, and basic scientists and practitioners sometimes have a really hard time communicating some of the more technical scientific findings to a general audience. And so through that, I did some opportunities with the AVMA, some of their legislative fly-ins, their externships, and then got involved in other organizations, like the journal I'm involved in now, and I've kept myself in this space that way.

dvm360: Are there any current or emerging policy issues that you think veterinary professionals should be paying closer attention to right now?

Kiran: That's a really good question, and I think a little bit depends to some extent on the context and where you live, and context really makes a difference for what's relevant and whether you're engaging on the state, local, or federal level, all of which are awesome opportunities to engage. It's not just federal government, but I'd be remiss not to mention New World Screwworm as a poster child for what happens if we don't have policies and regulations in place to make sure that we have appropriate border control and border evaluation. I think that that's certainly something that spans the One Health perspective of human and animal, and something that is relevant maybe right now to a smaller portion of the United States, but could become a bigger issue