U.S. Preparing for ‘Critical Threat’ to U.S. Agriculture, USDA Leader Says During Oklahoma Stop

By Emma Murphy

YUKON — With no active cases of New World screwworm, the USDA is working to prevent its spread from Central America, a Trump administration official said Friday. 

U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins outlined the Department of Agriculture’s plan to prevent the spread of screwworm to the U.S., including a partnership with the government of Mexico, during a stop at Express Ranches in Oklahoma. 

New World screwworm is a fly that lays eggs in the wounds of living animals and its larvae burrow and feed on healthy flesh, causing illness or death. The insect usually infects livestock and is typically found in South and Central America, but one case was detected in a human this summer who had returned from travel to El Salvador. 

“President Trump’s America First agenda means our (agricultural) community deserves unwavering support in the face of critical threats like this one,” she said. “As the situation evolves, we will continue our efforts to keep vulnerable livestock ranchers and the rest of America safe. The U.S. has defeated the New World screwworm before, and we will do it again.”

Earlier this sumer there was a confirmed case of screwworms in Mexico about 370 miles from the U.S. border, south of Texas. The USDA halted live cattle crossing at the border and got “really serious” about preventing the spread, Rollins said. 

No cases of screwworm have been detected in livestock in the United States. 

“So again, we’ve got plan A, plan B, plan C, plan D, but we are not messing around with any of them,” Rollins said. “We are getting fully prepared at every single level for whatever comes.”

The USDA’s plan to prevent the spread of screwworm includes investments of up to $100 million for innovations to find new ways to combat the insect and $750 million to create a facility in south Texas to sterilize flies and combat the spread. 

Releasing sterile flies was a technique used to eradicate the pest in the 1960s to disrupt the reproduction of screwworms and is being used again today. The hope is that those sterile flies will then mate with wild ones, producing infertile eggs, experts said. 

Another $21 million is being invested to renovate an existing fruit fly production facility in Metapa, Mexico, to produce more sterile flies.

Rollins estimated the facility in Mexico will be functioning again in the coming months, but the Texas facility will take 12 to 18 months to produce. Combined, these facilities will produce up to 400 million additional sterile flies per week. 

Agents from the USDA will also monitor the U.S.-Mexico border as “Tick Riders” along with dogs to detect infested livestock, Rollins said. 

In order to prevent screwworm from crossing the southern border, the U.S. partnered with Mexico. Mexico has waived duties on eradication equipment being sent across the border and allowed for the U.S. to complete aerial drops of sterile flies, Rollins said. 

“I’ve only been on the job about seven or eight months, but many have said that our partnership with Mexico right now is as strong and as transparent as it has been in decades,” she said. 

The USDA will also inspect animals and carcasses for signs of New World screwworm infection to protect the country’s food supply. 

Screwworm was more widespread in the United States in the 1960s, but it was later eradicated. 

U.S. Representative Frank Lucas, R-Oklahoma, said it’s a “critical battle” to prevent screwworms from reaching the United States again. 

“The battle on new world screwworms [is] the chief threat we face in the livestock industry,” he said. “I was too young to remember it firsthand, but I listened to my late father and grandfather talk about going out every day all summer long with a bottle of stuff to paint newborns’ navels and treat every wound on an animal. I’ve listened to my old retired game warden point out to me that before these were eradicated in the 60s, we had dramatically fewer deer and other wildlife because they attack all animals.”

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