US Edition
Texas to create response team to combat New World screwworms
- On June 25, 2025, Governor Greg Abbott instructed the Texas Animal Health Commission and Texas Parks and Wildlife Department to collaboratively form a response team focused on addressing the New World Screwworm situation in Texas.
- This directive was issued in response to the expansion of the New World screwworm parasite from Central America into southern Mexico, which threatened livestock in Texas and led to previous restrictions on cross-border cattle movement.
- The New World screwworm is a parasitic fly whose larvae burrow into open wounds of livestock, causing severe damage and death if untreated, and was detected in a cow near Mexico's Guatemala border in January 2025.
- Governor Abbott emphasized the importance of the Response Team’s role in leading preventative measures to keep Texans informed and ready, highlighting their commitment to safeguarding Texas’s natural resources, farm animals, and wildlife from this harmful parasite.
- This initiative complements USDA actions of suspending live animal imports since November 2024 and plans to open a fly production facility near the Texas border to help control screwworm spread.
32 Articles
32 Articles
Abbott Builds Response Team for Parasitic Flesh-Eating Flies
To prevent the creeping threat of an invasive parasitic fly, the New World screwworm (NWS), whose larvae burrow into open wounds and eat animals, including the occasional human, Gov. Greg Abbott has commissioned the Texas New World Screwworm Response Team. The screwworm, which can eat its way through entire herds, has wreaked havoc on the American cattle industry before, costing farmers and ranchers millions of dollars in an outbreak in the ‘60s…
KRQE News 13
KTSMTexas cattle industry braces for screwworm threat as deadly parasite spreads from Mexico
RED ROCK, Texas (Nexstar) — A parasitic fly that devastated Texas livestock in the 1960s is spreading north through Central America and potentially toward the state's $15 billion cattle industry, prompting state and federal officials to launch emergency preparations for what could become an economic catastrophe. The New World screwworm embeds its larvae into the living flesh of warm-blooded animals, including cattle, wildlife and pets. The fly h…
New World Screwworm Response Team: How Texas Gov. Greg Abbott is preparing for an infestation
The 2025 NBA Draft is still going on for those who didn’t hear their names called. Fifty-nine players were selected in the two-night draft, with Jahmai Mashack being the last pick going to Memphis. The New York Knicks had a second-rounder docked for tampering violations in 2022 when signing Jalen Brunson, Ryan Nembhard, Caleb Love and Hunter Dickinson were among the notable undrafted rookies who now have a new home. Here’s what to know as player…
Abbott orders preemptive strike on parasitic fly that poses serious threat to livestock
KVII serves the Amarillo, Texas and Panhandle region with local news, sports and weather for the city and surrounding towns, including Canyon, Hereford, Borger, Pampa, Dalhart, Dumas, Childress, Perryton, Clarendon, Texas; Guymon, Oklahoma; and Clovis, Portales, Tucumcari, New Mexico.
The Texas Tribune
Gov. Greg Abbott orders preemptive strike on screwworm in Texas
Abbott ordered two Texas agencies to begin working together and with residents and business leaders to stop the spread of the invasive fly before it even starts.
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