The U.S Department of Agriculture confirmed the first domestic case of the New World screwworm in South Texas after a local lawmaker urged state action on the pest. According to a June 3 announcement and media call by USDA Secretary Brooke Rollins, testing on a livestock sample from La Pryor in Zavala County confirmed the first active infestation in the United States.
The identification marks the first time the United States cattle industry has faced a domestic screwworm threat in over 60 years. Rollins said that the USDA and Texas Animal Health Commission officials are taking immediate containment and eradication actions to clear the parasite.
The confirmation follows last week’s warning from State Representative Don McLaughlin (R-Uvalde), who reported that the flesh-eating pest had been detected near the border and demanded an emergency response modeled after Operation Lone Star.
McLaughlin said that federal regulators had moved at a snail’s pace while the parasite advanced through Mexico. He called on state leaders to deploy personnel from the Texas Department of Public Safety and the Texas Animal Health Commission to establish border inspection checkpoints. Screwworm larvae feed on the living tissue of warm-blooded animals, creating severe injury, infection, and death in cattle populations and native wildlife.
Governor Greg Abbott issued an emergency declaration for South Texas to accelerate the deployment of sterile insect technique technology, which releases millions of infertile flies to disrupt the pest’s breeding cycle.
The USDA Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service said its next steps include establishing a localized quarantine zone around Zavala County to restrict the movement of live livestock and wildlife. State veterinarian teams said they will begin mandatory inspections of all warm-blooded animals within a 50-mile radius of the detection site to halt the further spread of the parasite.