Overview
- USDA says a New World screwworm case in Nuevo León, Mexico, about 62 miles from the Texas border, is the northernmost active detection in the country.
- Texas leaders called the parasite a direct and imminent threat to ranchers and ordered tighter surveillance and coordination along the border.
- Federal officials say the current risk inside the U.S. remains very low, and there is no evidence of infections in domestic animals.
- USDA and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers have begun building a sterile-fly facility in Edinburg, Texas, to back the proven tactic of releasing sterile males, which works because females typically mate only once.
- The fly’s larvae eat living tissue in wounds of livestock and, rarely, people, with recent U.S. care involving an imported case; treatment requires removing the maggots and travelers are urged to keep wounds covered and use EPA‑approved repellents.