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6d ago

Screwworm Returns to U.S. as Four Cases Are Confirmed in Texas

Limited sterile‑fly production and new trade curbs raise the threat to Texas cattle and force officials to scale containment efforts quickly.

A test container of dyed fly pupae are displayed at a Domestic New World Screwworm Sterile Fly Production Facility to combat the northward spread of NWS and protect American livestock, in Edinburg, Texas, Feb. 9, 2026

Overview

  • Federal and Texas authorities confirmed two additional detections on Monday, bringing the U.S. total to four and prompting 20‑kilometer quarantine and movement‑control zones around affected farms.
  • USDA and the Texas Animal Health Commission have deployed roughly 75 personnel, stepped up trapping and surveillance, and begun airborne and ground releases of sterile flies from Moore Air Base.
  • Investigators are still determining whether infections were imported because some affected animals recently traveled to Mexico, including a dog whose case spans the Texas–New Mexico border.
  • The outbreak has already prompted emergency trade steps such as Canada’s temporary ban on Texas livestock and could deepen economic strain on a cattle herd at a 75‑year low with an estimated full‑outbreak cost of about $1.8 billion to Texas.
  • The response leans on the Sterile Insect Technique that eradicated screwworm in 1966, but U.S. production capacity is limited and a permanent South Texas sterile‑fly facility under construction will not be fully online for months to years.