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USDA Confirms New World Screwworm in South Texas Calf

The agency has set quarantine zones, deployed teams and begun targeted sterile‑fly releases to try to stop the pest from becoming established.

An adult New World screwworm fly sits in this undated photo.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture is testing a suspected case of New World screwworm in South Texas. It would be the first of its kind in the U.S. in decades.
Communities along the U.S-Mexico border are bracing for the New World screwworm, a fly that poses a major threat to Texas' billion-dollar cattle industry.

Overview

  • Federal officials confirmed on Wednesday that New World screwworm larvae were found in the umbilical area of a three‑week‑old calf in South Texas and established a 12–20 kilometer quarantine and movement restrictions around the detection site.
  • USDA and Texas partners have placed personnel on the ground, increased trapping and surveillance, and begun localized releases of sterilized male flies to break the pest’s breeding cycle.
  • Officials say the parasite poses very low risk to human health and is not a food‑safety threat, but they warn a wider livestock outbreak could cause large economic losses and push beef prices higher.
  • The sterile insect technique works by flooding an area with non‑fertile male flies so females that mate do not produce offspring, and USDA is expanding production with new dispersal centers and a large facility under construction in South Texas.
  • The detection follows months of northward spread through Central America and Mexico, including a recent Coahuila case about 25 miles from the U.S. border, and has prompted animal import limits and stepped‑up cross‑border monitoring.