USDA Launches $8.5M Screwworm Facility South Texas to Combat Pest Spread

U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins has launched an $8.5 million sterile New World screwworm fly dispersal facility at Moore Air Base in South Texas, part of a broader five-pronged USDA plan to combat the pest. The plan focuses on stopping the pest's spread in Mexico through partnership and monitoring, protecting the U.S. border, maximizing readiness, and innovating eradication methods. USDA is working closely with Mexican authorities, increasing cooperation such as allowing more frequent sterile fly dispersal flights and sharing surveillance data. The National Cattlemen’s Beef Association supports the plan but emphasizes the challenge ahead, noting the need to produce hundreds of millions of sterile flies weekly and improve monitoring in both cattle and wildlife populations. The ban on live cattle imports from Mexico remains in place to safeguard U.S. herds, though USDA hopes to reopen ports quickly once data shows progress in controlling the pest. Stakeholders will have opportunities to provide input through public listening sessions as USDA finalizes eradication efforts.