USDA Investigates Possible New World Screwworm Case in South Texas
The USDA is confirming the case and has imposed a quarantine zone while releasing millions of sterile flies to stop the parasite’s spread.
- On Wednesday, Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins confirmed the first New World screwworm case in Texas since 1966, identified in a 3-week-old calf in LaPryor approximately 50 miles from the Mexican border, threatening the state's $15 billion cattle industry.
- The parasite's larvae feed on living tissue, posing a significant threat to livestock. USDA officials monitored the pest's rapid movement across Mexico for over a year, attempting to prevent its entry into the United States.
- Texas State Veterinarian Bud Dinges established a 12-mile quarantine zone prohibiting warm-blooded animals from moving without inspection. The USDA began releasing sterile flies and started construction on a $750 million breeding facility in the region.
- Criticizing the federal response as too slow, Texas Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller urged President Donald Trump to deploy every available resource before the outbreak becomes a full-blown agricultural disaster.
- Officials tested over 58,000 fly samples and 19,000 wild animals to monitor spread. Rollins stated, "There is no threat of mass infestation," while the USDA deploys 8,000 fly traps along the U.S.-Mexico border.
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232 Articles
New World screwworm poses no threat to food safety, Mississippi Ag commissioner says
JACKSON, Miss. (WJTV) - Following confirmation by U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) of the detection of the New World screwworm (NWS), in a bovine calf in Texas, Commissioner of Agriculture and Commerce Andy Gipson (R-Miss.) said the detection poses no threat to food safety. “I want to ensure [...]
The Toronto Star
What to know about the New World screwworm fly and its reappearance in the US
The New World screwworm fly is threatening the $113 billion U.S. cattle industry for the first time in more than a half century, with an infestation from its flesh-eating larvae
Screwworm fly detected in Texas decades after cattle threat was largely eradicated in U.S.
Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins said there have been no other detections of the fly in the U.S., and officials were quick to say that while the fly’s larvae are a threat to livestock production, they don’t infest food.
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