Overview

• USDA announces $8.5 million dispersal facility at Moore Air Base to breed sterile male screwworm flies for release against outbreak, with operations set to start within six months.
• USDA will invest $21 million to convert a fruit-fly production plant near Mexico’s southern border into a sterile-screwworm breeding site, aiming for 60–100 million flies per week to reinforce Panama’s existing output.
• Live imports of cattle, horses and bison from Mexico have been suspended since May to prevent further northward spread of the parasite detected as far as Oaxaca and Veracruz.
• The parasite threatens the US cattle industry—particularly Texas’s $15 billion sector—and can infest any warm-blooded animal, including pets and humans, prompting enhanced binational surveillance.
• Alongside facility builds, Texas will deploy fly traps along the Rio Grande and explore parasiticide-laced feed to detect and neutralize screwworm incursions before they reach US herds.