Democratic US Senate candidate James Talarico called on the Trump administration to reverse the massive job cuts at the US Department of Agriculture—some of the largest that were imposed last year as President Donald Trump and his then-adviser Elon Musk embarked on a “slash-and-burn exercise” to reduce the government workforce—as the agency announced Wednesday that it had detected the country’s first case of New World screwworm since 1966.

The parasitic fly was found in a three-week-old calf in La Pryor, Texas, after months of warnings from Texas agricultural officials and the state’s $15 billion cattle industry that the flesh-eating pest, whose larvae exclusively feed on the living tissue of warm-blooded animals, could soon make its way to the US after spreading through Latin America in recent years. Mexico reported its first case in 2024 and saw a 53% increase in the number of cases in animals between July-August 2025.

“Following a historic drought that has reduced our herd size and driven up prices,” said Talarico late Wednesday, “the New World screwworm outbreak is further disrupting supply chains that impact all of us who rely on the cattle industry—from meatpacking facilities to feedlots to grocery stores.”

“We must fully staff the USDA so that the federal government can provide clear and predictable guidance for ranchers and work alongside the Texas government and the cattle industry to keep pests like the New World screwworm out of our herd,” said Talarico.

Catharine Young, a senior fellow at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, noted that the USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Prevention Service “helps prevent threats like screwworm from ever reaching US livestock.”

“In 2025, it lost 1,300 employees due to cuts and firings,” said Young. “That’s the thing about prevention: You don’t notice it when it works, only when it is gone.”

The Department of Government Efficiency also cut funding that supported outbreak investigations, response efforts, and testing laboratories in 22 countries and helped build laboratories for testing.

The parasite does not pose a food safety threat, according to officials. A top concern is that an outbreak could raise beef prices—which have already been driven up by the fact that the US cattle herd is the smallest it’s been in 75 years following years of drought conditions, the surging costs associated with ranching, and corporate consolidation.

The USDA estimates that an outbreak could cost Texas’ economy $1.8 billion in losses before it is contained.

The pest can infect humans—and 41 human cases were reported in Mexico last year—but experts say such cases are rare and that the detection of screwworm in Texas poses little risk to the public.

Instead of spreading from animal to animal, screwworm females lay eggs in animals’ open wounds. The larvae then burrow into living flesh and feed on tissue, causing severe infections and death if the livestock goes untreated.

For decades, agricultural officials deployed a technique that successfully eradicated screwworm in the US: releasing sterilized male flies into affected areas. Female flies generally only mate once in their lifespan, so those that mate with a sterile male produce no offspring.

The USDA has begun releasing sterile flies into the part of South Texas where the parasite was found and is investing in sterile fly production facilities in the state. It has also established a 12-mile quarantine zone around the affected area.

US officials are also reportedly working with Mexico and Panama to use the sterile fly technique in those countries.

Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins said Wednesday that US has deployed 8,000 traps capable of detecting screwworm, and blamed the case in South Texas on “the open-border policies of the last administration and the resulting illicit cattle movement.”

Rollins had denied screwworm was in the United States a day before she confirmed the case at a press conference on Wednesday.

Experts believe pandemic-era disruptions to sterile fly programs, increased movement of livestock and people, and weather conditions that have allowed the parasite to thrive may all have contributed to the screwworm’s gradual journey toward the US.

Texas Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller said Wednesday that “for months, the screwworm has advanced rapidly through Mexico in spite of the USDA’s existing gameplan,” and called on the Trump administration to approve the deployment of the Screwworm Adult Suppression System, which uses bait and insecticides and was tested by the US in the 1970s to eradicate the parasite.

“We have the ability to shut that and eradicate that screwworm," Miller told The Texas Tribune. "We can do it in about 60 days. USDA has the tools and the knowledge to do it.”

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