Overview

• The USDA announced a $750 million sterile-fly production facility in Edinburg that will mass-produce 300 million flies weekly, backed by an $8.5 million dispersal center at Moore Air Base and $100 million in novel detection and trapping technologies.
• U.S. authorities have kept live cattle imports from Mexico suspended since May, shrinking shipments to under 200,000 head this year and costing Mexico’s meat sector an estimated $25 million to $30 million monthly.
• Mexican and U.S. veterinary teams continue to release sterile flies, deploy detection dogs at border crossings, and train producers despite a capacity shortfall that is not expected to close until a Chiapas plant opens in 2026.
• Ranchers in Sonora and other northern states have sold over 35,000 cows domestically at losses up to 35 percent and shifted to beekeeping, dairy farming and luxury butcher sales to offset export revenue declines.
• Livestock producers are demanding stronger federal measures to crack down on smuggled cattle and encourage transparent reporting in order to accelerate the reopening of U.S. markets.