USDA Confirms First Texas Screwworm Case Since 1966; Quarantines Area and Releases Sterile Flies

Derrell Peel, an agricultural economist at Oklahoma State University, said limited output at the Panama facility and increased illegal cattle movement allowed the fly to bypass sterile-fly release zones.

Mexico’s shift over the past 15 to 20 years from a regional to a national cattle market further aided rapid spread, he said. Lee Haines, an associate research professor at the University of Notre Dame, said milder winters have reduced natural suppression of stray populations.

APHIS lost roughly a quarter of its workforce in early 2025, and international disease-prevention funding was cut in March 2025.

The beef cow herd stands at 2 million head, its lowest level since 1951. More than 79 percent of the beef cow herd in the 26 largest cattle-producing states is affected by drought. Beef production has fallen for several consecutive years.

Farm bankruptcies filed under Chapter 12 rose 46 percent compared with 2024. A February 2026 executive order expanded the tariff-rate quota for lean beef trimmings from Argentina by 80,000 metric tons. Cash cattle prices fell nearly 13 percent in the weeks after the announcement before recovering.

American soybean exports to China have dropped to near zero amid tariff disputes. Urea prices jumped more than 40 percent after the United States entered the Iran war in February 2026. Cattle producers in the affected region have called on President Donald Trump to declare a national emergency.

Texas Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller said the screwworm has advanced over 1,100 miles from southern Mexico to Texas and urged immediate deployment of the Screwworm Adult Suppression System alongside sterile-fly releases. Brooke Rollins said the pest poses no food safety risk. “This pest does not cause a food safety issue.

This is not a disease, it is not a virus,” she said. Animals treated early enough can make a full recovery, she added. Jennifer Koziol, an associate professor at Texas Tech University School of Veterinary Medicine, said wound care is critically important and called on the Centers for Disease Control to confirm all human cases.

Phillip Kaufman, a professor of entomology at Texas A&M University, said producing sufficient numbers of sterile flies and releasing them in the correct places at the right time remains critical. Colin Woodall, CEO of the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association, said the industry already faced the smallest domestic herd since the 1940s.

“Drought, rising input costs and a lack of agricultural labor are all compounded by the arrival of New World Screwworm,” he said.

The FDA has expanded treatment options by granting veterinarians access to commercially available products.