Overview
- Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins ordered an immediate halt to live cattle, bison and horse imports at southern ports after SENASICA confirmed a screwworm case in Ixhuatlán de Madero, Veracruz.
- The shutdown reverses this week’s phased port reopenings and will remain in place until Mexico demonstrates further progress in containing the parasite.
- USDA is fast-tracking a $300 million sterile-fly production facility at Moore Air Base in South Texas alongside a $21 million upgrade of Mexico’s breeding complex to produce hundreds of millions of sterilized male flies each week.
- The sterile insect technique, first used to eradicate screwworm from U.S. livestock by 1966, is central to binational efforts aimed at pushing the parasite back toward the Darien Gap.
- Officials warn that without sustained surveillance and release campaigns, a renewed outbreak could kill cattle within two weeks and inflict up to $1.8 billion in losses on the Texas livestock sector.