{"id":212738,"date":"2026-06-05T06:56:55","date_gmt":"2026-06-05T06:56:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/usda-investigates-first-possible-us-new-world-screwworm-case-in-texas-usa-today\/"},"modified":"2026-06-05T06:56:55","modified_gmt":"2026-06-05T06:56:55","slug":"usda-investigates-first-possible-us-new-world-screwworm-case-in-texas-usa-today","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/usda-investigates-first-possible-us-new-world-screwworm-case-in-texas-usa-today\/","title":{"rendered":"USDA investigates first possible US New World screwworm case in Texas – USA Today"},"content":{"rendered":"

Just a day after saying there are no cases of a parasitic fly in the U.S., the U.S. Department of Agriculture<\/a> says a case may have been detected in South Texas, with the potential to impact Texas’s $15 billion cattle industry.<\/a>
The USDA announced on Wednesday afternoon, June 3, in a social media post<\/a> that a case of New World screwworm (NWS) “may have been detected in South Texas” \u2014 a fly eradicated from the U.S. for several decades after the 1960s crisis.
The USDA’s National Veterinary Services Laboratories in Ames, Iowa, is conducting confirmatory testing for the case, while USDA personnel are on the ground in Texas working with local partners.
This announcement comes a day after USDA Secretary Brooke Rollins said a social media post by a “very well-intentioned” Texas legislator about a case in which the NWS had confirmed a location one mile from the border was false.
Rollins said on Tuesday, June 2, that the closest case to the U.S. was reported last week, when Mexico notified USDA of a detection 25 miles from the US-Mexico border in Coahuila \u2014 the closest detection to date until Wednesday’s suspected case.
The state legislator was Texas state Rep. Don McLaughlin, R-Uvalde, who, in a social media post<\/a> on Monday, June 1, requested that state leaders immediately organize a Texas-led response modeled after “Operation Lone Star” \u2014 a 2021 border security initiative.
“As Texans, we have seen this story before,” said McLaughlin. “The federal government abandoned Texas on border security, and now they are failing to take seriously a threat that could devastate our livestock industry, wildlife populations, and rural economy. This pest does not care whether you’re a rancher, hunter, landowner, or consumer. The consequences will be felt across our state if we fail to.”
Texas Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller also issued a statement Wednesday evening<\/a> about the suspected case in South Texas, criticizing the USDA’s “slow, bureaucratic and incomplete response” to the NWS threat.
“For months, the screwworm has advanced rapidly through Mexico in spite of the USDA\u2019s existing gameplan,\u201d Miller said. \u201cEven though billions of sterile flies have been dispersed by USDA, the screwworm has still advanced over 1,100 miles from southern Mexico to Texas, and USDA has missed an important component. Now that it appears the first screwworm has arrived in Texas, the consequences of that decision are now staring us in the face.”
Miller further called upon President Donald Trump<\/a> to direct USDA to immediately deploy the Screwworm Adult Suppression System (SWASS) \u2014 a tool that was successfully used during previous eradication campaigns.
According to the commissioner’s office, SWASS uses attractants, bait and targeted EPA-approved insecticides to reduce adult screwworm populations, with the state department ready to fast-track approval for its use in Texas.
“Mr. President, I am asking you to take direct control of this response. Cut through the bureaucracy, deploy SWASS immediately, and throw every available federal resource at this threat before it becomes a full-blown agricultural disaster,” Miller said.
A county in South Texas is taking preemptive action against the NWS before the USDA lab can confirm the suspected case.
At a Val Verde County Commissioners Court meeting on Wednesday evening, County Judge Lewis Owens closed the meeting, stating that he intends to file a local disaster declaration regarding the threat posed by the New World screwworm.
Owens declined to comment further until cases are officially confirmed.
County Commissioner Kerr Wardlaw also issued a warning to the public not to hide any suspected NWS cases to help maintain the buffer zone between Mexico’s confirmed cases and the U.S. and Texas.
“Once it breaks the border \u2014 let’s say it gets to I-10, spreads to I-20 \u2014 we are behind enemy lines essentially,” Wardlaw said. “Once we are behind enemy lines … we are living with the screwworm.”
Wardlaw said the county will be able to start combating screwworms once Texas and the USDA push them back to Mexico and Panama, where they were originally pushed back to in the 1960s.
According to the USDA<\/a>, the New World screwworm (NWS) is a parasitic fly that impacts livestock, pets, wildlife, and, less commonly, people and birds. The fly’s larvae feed on the living tissue of warm-blooded animals.
USDA reports that the current risk to animals and people in the United States remains\u202fvery low and that NWS is not contagious.
Rather, screwworm infestations begin when a female fly lays eggs on a wound or body opening. The eggs hatch intolarvae that burrow into the wound and feed on living tissue, then after about 7 days of feeding, larvae drop to theground, burrow into the soil, and pupate.
The adult screwworm fly emerges from the soil after 7 to 54 days.
Mateo Rosiles is the Texas Connect reporter for USA TODAY and its regional papers in Texas. Got a news tip for him? Email him at mrosiles@usatodayco.com.<\/em><\/p>\n

source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Just a day after saying there are no cases of a parasitic fly in the U.S., the U.S. Department of Agriculture says a case may have been detected in South Texas, with the potential to impact Texas’s $15 billion cattle industry.The USDA announced on Wednesday afternoon, June 3, in a social media post that a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":212739,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-212738","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world","8":"entry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/212738","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=212738"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/212738\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/212739"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=212738"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=212738"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=212738"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}