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The parasite reappeared in the United States after eradication in 1966. Officials are expanding sterile fly production to contain the outbreak.
Washington ExaminerEight cases of New World screwworm have been declared in Texas and one case in New Mexico. The parasite, eradicated from the United States in 1966, reappeared after spreading north from South America. Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins appeared at a sterile fly dispersal station near La Pryor, Texas, on Thursday, June 11, 2026.
She told reporters on Monday that every model had predicted the screwworm would reach Texas by early last summer and that the Trump administration had bought an additional year to prepare. Rollins stated there had been zero impact to the screwworm mission area from the reduction in force.
She told the Senate Agriculture Committee on Wednesday that the Biden administration’s open border policies combined with Mexican cartel actions allowed the screwworm to move north for the first time in 50 years.
Democratic Senate nominee James Talarico cited reckless cuts to the Department of Agriculture made last year as a factor in the outbreak. Rep. Jimmy Gomez stated that the screwworm monitoring program in Central America was cut by the Trump administration’s DOGE in early 2025.
Sen. Raphael Warnock and Rep. Shri Thanedar argue that DOGE workforce cuts last year to the USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service left the country vulnerable. Democrats say the Trump administration bears some blame for temporarily reversing a Biden-era USDA decision to close southern ports of entry to live cattle imports last year.
The Texas Animal Health Commission stated that lots of factors spurred the outbreak. Communications director Erin Robinson said animal movements are a factor in the spread through Mexico into Texas and that the Panama sterile fly facility is at maximum capacity. The USDA and most Texas officials say a lack of sterile fly facilities forms the core problem in tackling the outbreak.
Factories in Orlando, Bithlo, and Sebring, Florida, were shuttered in the early 1970s. The USDA ended sterile fly production at the former Moore Air Base in Mission, Texas, in the early 1980s. The Tuxtla Gutierrez facility in Chiapas, Mexico, which could produce 550 million sterile screwworm flies weekly, was shut down in 2012.
By May 2025, the USDA was looking at spending $21 million to expand sterile fly production in Metapa, Mexico. In August 2025, the USDA unveiled a $750 million plan to revitalize the Moore Air Base facility. The resurrected Moore Air Base sterile fly facility is set to come online next year.
The Metapa facility and the Moore Air Base facility are expected to produce 500 million and more sterile flies with the Novo Fly method. Dr. Justin Welsh stated he would by no means characterize the screwworm situation as a crisis and that products like Exzolt Cattle-CA1 can prevent screwworm infestation on cattle for a number of weeks.
Outbreaks of New World screwworm were reported in Panama in June 2021. New World screwworm was reported in Honduras by August 2024 and back in Chiapas, Mexico, by November 2024. A final buffer zone against New World screwworm was established in the 1990s at the Darien Gap.
A sterile fly production facility was built in Panama in 2006. The Texas and Southwestern Cattle Raisers Association has approximately 28,000 members. Robinson said the partnerships and planning of the past two years have come to fruition and that the condition is highly preventable and highly treatable.
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