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USDA Breaks Ground on $8.5 Million Texas Screwworm Fly Facility
SOUTHERN TEXAS AND SOUTHERN MEXICO, JUL 2 – The USDA aims to release up to 400 million sterile flies weekly to halt the flesh-eating screwworm, protecting livestock and wildlife from a pest threatening the southern U.S. border.
- The U.S. government plans to breed and release billions of sterilized male screwworm flies over Mexico and southern Texas starting by July 2026.
- This effort responds to the threat of the flesh-eating New World screwworm fly, which can kill cattle in two weeks and recently caused the U.S. to close its southern border to livestock imports until mid-September.
- The USDA will open a new breeding factory in southern Mexico and a distribution center in southern Texas, investing over $29 million to scale production from Panama's current 117 million flies weekly to 400 million flies weekly.
- Edwin Burgess of the University of Florida called the sterile fly release "an exceptionally good technology," noting previous eradication of the pest in North America through the same method from 1962 to 1975 with over 94 billion flies bred.
- This approach aims to reduce the pest population by releasing sterilized males that mate ineffectively, a strategy viewed as more effective and environmentally sound than spraying pesticides, but experts warn the pest could still reemerge despite past successes.
129 Articles
129 Articles
Flesh-eating maggots are inching toward the US. The battle plan? Bomb them with radiation-treated flies
By Kameryn Griesser, CNN (CNN) — Hundreds of millions of flies dropping from planes in the sky might sound like a horrible nightmare, but experts say such a swarm could be the livestock industry’s best defense against a flesh-eating threat poised to invade the southwestern border of the United States. An outbreak of New World screwworms — the larval form of a type of fly that’s known to nest in the wounds of warm-blooded animals and slowly eat t…
A bizarre plan against a new threat is causing a stir: the US administration under Donald Trump has billions of flies grown – in order to discard them from aircraft later.
The reemergence of the New World screwworm and its potential distribution in North America
The reemergence of the New World screwworm (Cochliomyia hominivorax) poses a significant threat to animal and public health with minimal regulatory oversight. This study analyzes the potential distribution and reemergence of this pest, which is endemic to South America but was previously eradicated in North America. We first developed bioclimatic suitability models, and then incorporated these findings along with reemergence records and inspecti…
Woods, Waters, & Wildlife: Of Cats and Dogs…
FAMILY PETS USUALLY BECOME close to being members of their owners’ families. When pets’ lives end, they are grieved by the families that loved them. But an early demise caused by a New World Screwworm (NWS) laying eggs in an open sore or wound would add to the agony of a beloved pet’s passing. Learning about NWS and closely monitoring pets could help avoid that tragedy. (Photo by John Jefferson) by John Jefferson Got a dog or cat? If you do, thi…
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