February 11, 2026 – Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins joined Governor Greg Abbott in Texas Monday to announce the opening of a new U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) facility that will be able to disperse sterile flies in an effort to prevent the spread of New World screwworm flies, which can kill cattle and other animals and infect humans.

The facility is one piece of a larger plan Rollins rolled out last June. In July 2025, she shut down the U.S.-Mexico border to cattle imports, and the USDA has been collaborating with Mexico on detecting and stopping the spread aouth of the border. At the end of January, the USDA said it would shift its efforts further north and release more flies in Texas.

“The Trump Administration continues to bring the full force of the federal government to fight New World Screwworm,” Rollins said in a press release.

The screwworm fly is named for the ability of its larvae to burrow into animal flesh to feed. If untreated, they can kill cattle within seven to 10 days, according to the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association.

The screwworm is endemic in many Caribbean and South American countries and has been spreading north in recent years, following an outbreak in Central America in 2023. It has since been detected in southern Mexico, prompting fears it is heading north and could impact the U.S. livestock industry.

According to the USDA, no cases that originated in the U.S. have been detected. But at the end of January, a standard USDA inspection discovered an infection in a horse that had arrived from Argentina.

Adult screwworm flies only mate once, so dispersing sterile flies stops reproduction. The USDA currently produces and releases them in Panama, but the Texas facility will help the agency implement its plan to shift dispersal north to an area along the U.S.-Mexico border. It will have the capacity to release up to 100 million sterile flies per week. The agency is also building a production facility at the same location, where it will breed sterile flies.

Screwworms are one of many livestock diseases that have presented challenges for producers in the U.S. in recent years. Since the start of a bird flu outbreak in 2022, more than 190 million chickens and turkeys have been culled; cases have been surging since last fall and again at the start of 2026.

Like bird flu, the screwworm can also impact humans, but it does not currently pose a public health threat in the U.S, according to the Centers for Disease Control. (Link to this post.)

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