Ag News
USDA announces plan to combat screwworm spread
Posted on Jun 25, 2025 at 12:02 PM
On June 18, the USDA launched an $8.5 million sterile New World screwworm (NWS) fly dispersal facility in South Texas and announced a sweeping five-pronged plan to enhance USDA’s ability to detect, control, and eliminate this pest, the agency announced in a press release.
NWS is a devastating pest that causes serious and often deadly damage to livestock, wildlife, pets, and in rare cases, humans. While NWS has been eradicated from the United States for decades, recent detections in Mexico as far north as Oaxaca and Veracruz, about 700 miles away from the U.S. border, led to the immediate suspension of live cattle, horse, and bison imports through U.S. ports of entry along the southern border on May 11.
Key facets of USDA’s plan:
1. Stop the Pest from Spreading in Mexico and Ensure the U.S. and Mexico are partners in eradication - The USDA’s recent $21 million expenditure went toward renovating an existing fruit fly production facility in Metapa, Mexico, which will provide an additional 60-100 million sterile flies a week to stop the spread, on top of the more than 100 million already produced in Panama. This will result in at least 160 million flies per week.
The USDA conducted an in-person audit of Mexico’s animal health controls, will maintain close continual monitoring of these aspects moving forward and will make continuous improvements. These in-person visits have allowed a unique opportunity for APHIS to see first-hand the challenges and opportunities in Mexico toward combating NWS.
The USDA is working with Mexico to improve its surveillance and detection of NWS, which includes but is not limited to regularly providing traps, lures, and technical expertise to Mexico.
2. Protect the U.S. border – The USDA will support Mexico’s strategic trapping along the border and ensure the U.S. receives regular reporting as an early warning intervention.
The USDA will escalate communications and public outreach along the U.S.-Mexico border to create a “barrier zone of vigilance” and boost as close to real-time as possible awareness of this pest.
APHIS cattle fever tick riders in collaboration with U.S. Customs & Border Protection and with state partners will intercept and treat stray and illegally introduced livestock.
3. Maximize U.S. readiness – The USDA will partner with state animal health officials to update and finalize emergency management plans and support federal, state, and local responders in training on and practicing for a potential response.
USDA will ensure there are sufficient NWS treatments and will work to remove any federal regulatory hurdles for their use.
4. Take the fight to the screwworm – Because sterile NWS flies are one of the most important and proven tools for eradicating the pest, the USDA will immediately begin building a sterile insect dispersal facility at Moore Air Base, set to be completed in 2025. This facility, located near the U.S. – Mexico border near the Gulf Coast, will have the capability to disperse sterile flies in Northern Mexico.
The USDA is considering potential expenditures in new technologies, new science, including possible plans to move forward with the design process of a domestic sterile fly production facility to compliment the new dispersal facility at Moore Air Base which has also been identified as the proposed location. The facility could boost domestic sterile fly production by up to 300 million flies per week and could complement current production that already exists in Panama and Mexico.
5. Find innovative ways to eradicate NWS – The USDA is pursuing innovative research to improve sterile insect technology, exploring development of better traps and lures, exploring next generation NWS treatments, and assessing the potential use and practicality of additional strains or genetically modified versions of the pest as well as e-beam and other radiation technology for the production of sterile flies.
USDA will strengthen partnerships with land-grant universities in border states such as Texas, Arizona and New Mexico to facilitate local training, trap deployment, surveillance validation, and stakeholder outreach as an initial manner.
Additionally, to solicit input from stakeholders and to best inform the finalization of future plans, USDA will hold four public listening sessions to get feedback on the following topics: sterile fly production technology, eradication tools and technologies aside from sterile fly production, the benefits and barriers including timelines and costs of enhanced domestic vs. international sterile fly production, and other innovative ideas.
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