The New World screwworm outbreak has spread into Crockett County, marking the fifteenth confirmed detection in the United States. Animal health officials identified the parasitic case in a sheep on June 20, 2026.
In response, the Texas Animal Health Commission (TAHC) issued an emergency executive order to establish a new quarantine zone covering portions of Crockett, Sutton, and Schleicher counties.
This regional expansion indicates that the parasite is continuing to migrate into West-Central Texas. The case represents the third detection within the Concho Valley region, prompting immediate shifts in local agricultural logistics and containment protocols.
The total U.S. case count includes 14 domestic livestock detections in Texas and one isolated dog case in New Mexico. Over the weekend, veterinary inspectors confirmed two additional screwworm cases in cattle within Edwards County, a region already under active state monitoring.
The USDA Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) continues to maintain strict temporary import restrictions, keeping all southern U.S. land ports of entry closed to international livestock trade.
The new three-county quarantine imposes immediate legal restrictions on livestock transportation. Under TAHC biosecurity rules, warm-blooded animals cannot leave designated quarantine zones without undergoing a formal veterinary inspection, a preventative pesticide treatment, and receiving an official movement certificate.
Ranchers can track active quarantine boundaries using the TAHC interactive zone map. State health authorities emphasize that the parasite poses no risk to the commercial food supply, as screwworm larvae feed exclusively on living tissue rather than processed meat.
Following the Crockett County verification, the USDA began localized sterile-fly dispersal flights over the area to suppress the regional pest population. The sterile insect technique introduces sterile male flies into the wild to disrupt the reproduction cycle. State entomologists note that because the treatment targets future generations rather than killing active larvae, it takes several three-week life cycles for wild fly populations to decrease.
U.S. Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins said that federal and state agencies are acting to outpace the biological threat. Rollins noted that the primary goal is to deploy sufficient sterile fly quantities across Texas before the next summer season to halt further geographic spread.