The U.S. has opened a sterile fly facility in Texas to protect its beef supply from a parasite moving north from Mexico. According to the Associated Press, the facility unveiled this week near Edinburg, Texas, will disperse millions of sterile male screwworm flies to prevent the New World screwworm from entering the United States. The fly’s larvae burrow into open wounds on livestock and feed on living tissue.
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The effort is part of a broader push to keep the parasite from crossing into U.S. herds. U.S. Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins and Texas Gov. Greg Abbott both attended the ceremony.
“It’s a real testament to the all hands on deck — federal state and local — the fact that we do not have the pest in our country yet,” Rollins said.
The spread of these pests threatens parts of the beef supply chain that most people overlook, including cross-border livestock trade, feedlots, and processing plants that keep grocery store meat cases stocked.
The New World Screwworm was once pushed out of the United States in the 1960s using the same sterile-fly tactic, but it still lurks further south. As it moves closer, the U.S. Department of Agriculture has suspended imports of live cattle, bison, and horses from Mexico to reduce the risk of the parasite entering American herds.
At the Texas ceremony, federal and state officials said the sterile flies are meant to prevent the screwworm from reproducing. Sterile males mate with wild females, but their eggs do not hatch. Over time, this can reduce pest populations and prevent infestations before they reach U.S. livestock.
The Edinburg facility unveiled this week will distribute sterile flies across the region, but officials are also planning a much larger production facility at the same location to breed them. Construction on that breeding facility is expected to begin in spring 2026 and won’t be finished until around 2027.
Officials are also building a much larger breeding facility nearby, with plans to produce many more sterile flies over the long term. Construction on that facility isn’t expected to be finished until 2027.
Texas has also issued a disaster declaration as preparations ramp up. Ranchers there are on alert, watching closely for signs of infection in their herds.
