Flesh-eating parasite threatens American beef industry while blame game ensues

Parasitic larvae from flies capable of devastating the agriculture industry breached the U.S. border this week, setting off a round of finger-pointing while authorities scramble to contain the situation.

One case of New World screwworm (NWS), which ravaged American livestock in the 1960s, was confirmed in Texas on Wednesday. Screwworm does not affect the food supply like other agriculture industry headaches, such as mad cow disease, though it can infect any warm-blooded mammal, including livestock, wildlife, pets and – on rare occasions – even humans.

The pest feeds on the live flesh of its host after infected flies lay their eggs in any open wound as small as a scrape or a tick bite.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has been combatting the spread through closing cattle imports at the southern border and investing in sterile fly facilities. Releasing sterile flies where the NWS is active was the primary tool used to eradicate it in the 1960s.

National Cattlemen’s Beef Association CEO Colin Woodall told The Lion in a statement that “we defeated this harmful pest before in the 1960s by investing heavily in sterile fly dispersal and the NCBA will continue using every tool in the toolbox to ensure Screwworm is eradicated in the U.S. once again.”

Some local Texas authorities and industry voices argue Washington’s response has been too slow given the known risks. One May 2025 analysis from Texas A&M AgriLife projected that NWS breaching the border could mean at least $2.1 billion in losses to the cattle sector and $9 billion in the hunting and wildlife sectors in Texas.

The USDA states on its website that 500 million sterile flies a week were used to eradicate NWS from the U.S. previously, and while it projects producing that number again soon, several production facilities remain under construction.

Gov. Greg Abbott, R-Texas, expanded a state-wide NWS disaster response on Friday, according to the Texas Tribune. Florida enacted emergency rules on Friday to prevent the NWS spread as well.

“If we need to pass supplemental emergency measures in Congress, we should do that,” Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., told The Lion. “We’re looking at a record low number of livestock in the United States. Our herds nationwide and in Missouri are at historic lows. I don’t want to see them further reduced and degraded by this foreign virus, so we’ve got to move quickly on it.”

“I think USDA is on top of it. They’re working hard, I know, but we’ve got to do all we can as quick as possible,” Hawley added.

Prior to eradication in the 1960s, thousands of cases were treated each year in states beyond Texas, including Kansas and Missouri.

Dax Wedemeyer, a broker and analyst for U.S. Commodities, told The Lion that the eradication effort in the 1960s took about a decade and that opening the Texas sterile fly facility is key. However, the facility isn’t projected to be operational until November 2027.

Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins has assigned blame to the Biden administration, arguing that lax border policies contributed to increased movement through the Darien Gap, a dense jungle region between Central and South America that previously served as a natural barrier against the pests’ northward spread.

Several corporate media outlets have linked the outbreak to Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) cuts, something an USDA spokesperson vehemently denied.

“After The Biden Administration allowed the New World Screwworm to cross the Darién Gap and enter Mexico, the Trump USDA has not wavered in executing our New World Screwworm response, there have been no cuts to any staff used on the response to this issue,” the spokesperson told The Lion in an email. “President Trump has delivered on $1.3 billion in funding and support for this effort including the 100 million weekly sterile fly production from our facility in Panama, construction, and operation of the new sterile fly production facility in Texas, and research into other new response tools.”

The agency first suspended live cattle imports in November 2024 after NWS was detected in southern Mexico. Imports later resumed under heavy inspection protocols before being suspended again in May 2025.

Before the official NWS case confirmation on Wednesday, information about the outbreak’s proximity to the border was inconsistent, with local Rep. Don McLaughlin, R-Texas, claiming Monday that NWS was a mile away from the border, while Rollins said on Tuesday it was only as close as 25 miles.

McLaughlin said in a February video message addressed directly to President Donald Trump that “this isn’t something we can afford to ignore or slow-roll in Washington. … I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: the federal response has not moved fast enough. … I’m not looking to pick a fight. I’m looking for action.”

Wedemeyer told The Lion that the inconsistent flow of information may have been “as not to create panic in the markets, perhaps,” though he noted he was not suggesting any deliberate wrongdoing.

The economic threat of an NWS outbreak is influenced by consumer perception, and U.S. Commodities President Don Roose cautioned that the outbreak’s economic impact may hinge more on public messaging than the physical impacts of the pest itself.

“It’s going to be more the perception, what the consumer thinks, how the media puts it out to the public,” he said. “We know number one it is treatable, number two we know it doesn’t affect the food supply safety … I think eradicating this sooner rather than later is probably going to take place, just because it’s been a big focus here.”

Roose told The Lion that the industry faces a “two–prong attack” because of the pest: suspending imports slows the NWS spread, though Mexican feeder cattle imports account for roughly 5% of U.S. feedlot placements.

Some ranchers along the southern border say the screwworm import suspensions have impacted their operation, just as surging illegal migration under the Biden administration did.

Martin Wall, a Texas rancher, told The Lion that he saw 500 to 600 migrants cross his property daily during the Biden administration. Migrants would cut his fences, making it impossible to keep cattle on his ranch, and forcing him to keep them on leased land miles away, he said.

“Trump, when he went in, it’s like a light switch went off, and it was over,” Wall said. But damage to his fences and the environment from the crossings remains. “We still haven’t recovered from it. … It was an invasion.”

Wall, who trades cattle from Mexico, said the import suspension affected his operation, too. “When’s it gonna stop?” he asked.