We’ll start with a bit of positive news.
Several drugs to treat animals during the Texas screwworm outbreak have been approved by the Food and Drug Administration, including a generic medication for household pets such as dogs and cats.
Dr. Timothy Schell, the director for the Center for Veterinary Medicine (CVM) at the FDA, testified on Thursday before the Texas House Committee on Agriculture and Livestock, chaired by District 31 State Representative Ryan Guillen.
Schell told Guillen that the FDA fast-tracked numerous animal drugs in anticipation of the flesh-eating parasite carried by screwworm flies spreading from Mexico into Texas.
“We had a very dedicated staff approve 12 drugs in 10 months,” he said. “I don’t know if there is another regulatory organization in the world that could have done that. And we did that because we knew it was coming and we knew you would need these tools. And so, I’m very proud of the fact we have done that, and I am committing to you that we will continue to try to put products on the market as soon as we possibly can.”
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“CVM is working with drug sponsors, federal and state partners, and international regulators to understand options for U.S. veterinarians to treat NWS effectively and safely,” according to the FDA’s website.
New World Screwworm: Information for Veterinarians, has information provided by CVM to support veterinarians with the identification of FDA regulated products to prevent and treat NWS myiasis, the FDA also reports.
One of the approvals was for a generic drug, so that’s good. Approval is not the same as production, so I presume it will still be some time before any of these new drugs make an appearance. But at least we know they’re coming.
While treatment – which existed before these drugs, we’re not waiting on salvation – is important, prevention is key. About that…
After spending the morning testifying before Congress, U.S. Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins flew to South Texas to assure ranchers and local officials that the government was moving quickly to combat the New World screwworm outbreak.
“We’re going to beat this,” she said, standing before television cameras on a ranch Friday. “We beat it before, and we’re going to beat it again.”
So far, authorities have relied on sterile screwworm flies grown in a Panamaian lab to mate with the wild population to slow the spread.
But it will be years before the U.S. Department of Agriculture has the additional capacity it says it needs to fully eradicate the flesh-eating parasite here, leading to a blame game between members of the Trump and Biden administrations, who each say the other has not been quick enough to react.
The months ahead are likely to prove critical. If the screwworm outbreak in Texas expands rapidly, authorities’ ability to control its spread with sterile flies could soon be overwhelmed, said Phillip Kaufman, an entomologist at Texas A&M University who is working with the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
“So long as people keep reporting, we currently have the capacity for fly production to come in and do the sterile releases over their areas, which will knock the population down,” he said. “The risk is that the Texas outbreak reaches a level the USDA simply doesn’t have enough sterile flies.”
[…]
A new sterile fly facility in southern Mexico is expected to open next month, followed by another on Moore Air Base in South Texas next summer. But it could be years before authorities have the ability to produce the 500 million flies a week required to push the outbreak south, experts say.
There’s some blame here for the Biden administration. But Trump, along with Elmo and DOGE, made it much worse. The Observer presents some history on that.
The screwworm’s reentry into Texas had been portended since 2023, but it wasn’t until two weeks ago that the insect was caught breaching our southern border. Two specimens were found in newborn calves in Zavala County, just a few miles from Mexico. Days later it was discovered that they’d spread ever farther—screwworms were detected dining on another calf in La Salle County, a goat in Gillespie County, and a dog in Andrews County, which is some 400 miles north of the first reported case.
Now state and federal officials are scrambling to swat the bugs like pests at a picnic. Governor Greg Abbott has made a disaster declaration due to the risk posed to Texas’ $15 billion cattle industry. John Bellinger, a regent of Texas A&M University, has been tapped by the feds to lead the charge against screwworms. A 12-mile quarantine zone has been charted in Zavala County, and a wider “surveillance zone” has been created around it. Meanwhile, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) is effectively trying to create a no-fly zone in South Texas. The agency is building a factory in the border city of Edinburg to produce sterile male screwworms that are incapable of reproduction, but the facility is not expected to be online for another year.
Despite the surge of state and federal resources, the screwworm problem may prove difficult to squash. The insect was first purged from Texas in 1966, but one decade later the worms were back for their pound of flesh. Once again the wriggling masses of flesh-eating larvae were nightmare fuel for ranchers, who were bled of $728 million in today’s dollars. The Texas economy suffered to the tune of $2 billion. In 1986, through a plentitude of political wrangling and inventive new eradication efforts, the worms were forced to mount another retreat back to Mexico with their wings tucked between their legs. The moral of the story: Give a screwworm an inch, and it’ll take a mile.
It’s evident that the Trump administration hasn’t given much credence to the cautionary tale. The president lowered the drawbridge for screwworms last year when Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) slashed federal contributions to a robust U.S. Agency for International Development partner program with Panama, where the insects were confined to a remote isthmus for many decades. His DOGE initiative made deep staffing cuts to the USDA, under which the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) is housed. APHIS employees represent the first line of defense against incoming parasites, inspecting the cattle awaiting import from Mexico to ensure no screwworms are hitching a ride. In one year under Trump, APHIS staffing has been drained of 1,885 employees, a 23 percent reduction. Screwworms specialize in exploiting these sort of free-bleeding cuts.
At the same time the federal government was being systemically gutted, screwworms were spreading through Central America and Mexico with sickening speed and dogged persistence. They marched north toward Texas as resolutely as Moses and the Chosen People forged a path through the desert for the promised land. Except in this case, manna from heaven tends to walk on four hooves.
Predictably, the Trump administration has claimed no culpability in the developing crisis. Brooke Rollins, the Texas conservative activist-turned-agriculture secretary, placed the blame on cartels trafficking in illicit cattle and Democrats’ “open border policies.” No matter that Trump has allocated tens of billions of dollars to build a wall across our southern border, which ostensibly would hem up any holes. Or that Abbott and the State of Texas spent north of $10 billion to “lock down” the border during the length of the Biden presidency. Or that, in 2024, the Biden administration placed a months-long hold on Mexican cattle imports to hedge against the risk of a full-blown screwworm invasion. Back then, Sid Miller, the now-lame duck Texas agriculture commissioner, decried the border blockade as federal interventionism; he called the $165 million in emergency funding allocated for stemming the tide of screwworms “typical Washington behavior—prematurely spending first and asking questions later.” He told me in an interview at the time that the feds shouldn’t “do a damn thing until we have a problem.” Well, Houston, now we have a problem.
However you look at it, it’s the Trump administration’s problem now. I doubt they’ll get much slack as they complain about how we got here. Get results or GTFO.
The ranchers are waiting for some help.
James Henderson was a teenager in 1971 when he had to treat animals for a type of white maggot that ate livestock from the inside out — the New World screwworm.
“It’s a horrible parasite, and it will eat that flesh very quickly,” said Henderson, who operates the Bradley 3 Ranch near Memphis in the Texas Panhandle. “From the time that adult fly lays its eggs until you have an animal that probably needs to be destroyed can be as little as 72 hours.”
Henderson, like most Texas ranchers, has faced one battle after another in an industry already full of challenges. The return of the screwworm is the latest blow.
As inflation eats into Texas ranchers’ wallets, widespread drought and wildfires are making it even more difficult to grow a U.S. herd that has already shrunk to its smallest size in more than 70 years. President Donald Trump’s trade war in 2025 further inflamed the industry’s problems. The reduced supply of cattle is straining every link in the supply chain, making it more expensive for meatpacking plants to operate and passing those costs onto retail consumers and restaurants who are also struggling with higher prices.
According to the Consumer Price Index Report for May, beef prices nationally rose 12.9% in the past year. Texas’ beef cattle industry contributed about $7.2 billion annually to the state’s gross domestic product from 2018 to 2021, according to a study by Texas A&M AgriLife.
“It’s a tough time for many ranchers out there,” said David Ortega, a professor in food economics and policy at Michigan State University. “Then you have this latest factor. The cost of trying to contain and prevent the spread of this, it’s just another layer.”
Ortega says screwworm is creating uncertainty in the industry and for consumers. U.S. Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins said recently the screwworm outbreak could continue for a few more months. The construction on the sterile fly facility — the tool most think is the solution to the outbreak — won’t be completed until November 2027.
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Henderson doesn’t think the screwworm will reach the Panhandle. If it does, however, it would reduce herds even more. He remembers when the screwworm first appeared in the U.S., and the delays it caused for regular cattle operations.
Since ranchers have to avoid creating unnecessary open wounds during an outbreak, they wait until the winter to perform certain tasks on cattle, such as branding and castration. The screwworm can’t survive cold temperatures, Henderson said.
“You’re pretty well forced to do those things when those flies are not around,” Henderson said.
And with more job loss in the industry, Henderson said there isn’t enough manpower to even manage a large-scale screwworm outbreak.
“There’s not enough labor, not enough horses, not enough food to manage it,” Henderson said. “We’re not accustomed to having to come up with the labor that it takes to manage some of these big ranches, and to do that if we get a major outbreak.”
Hmm, wonder what might have happened to the labor force. Just one of those mysteries, I guess. Look, I know how these guys vote, and it’s easy to pile on them for it. But I still empathize. It really sucks for them right now, and nothing good will come from a bunch of ranchers being forced out of business. I just hope they take where we are and how we got here into consideration when they vote next.
Sorry to end this on a downer, but we must be prepared.
After the New World screwworm was found in a dog in Texas, pet owners across the state worried how it might affect their animal companions.
But the state’s uncontrollable stray animal population has the potential to make the spread of screwworm worse.
And in some cases, animals in shelters could die as a result of this outbreak, without ever being touched by the screwworm.
“They will do mass, mass, mass euthanasias if they aren’t allowed to move the animals out of the quarantine zones,” said Rebecca Giamona, a veterinarian with Austin Pets Alive. “There could be thousands of animals dying in shelters because they don’t have the space to continue to cover those animals.”
For years, animal advocates across Texas have been raising awareness about the overcrowding in animal shelters all over the Lone Star state. According to Best Friends Animal Society, an animal welfare nonprofit, an estimated 568,325 cats and dogs entered Texas shelters.
[…]
Earlier this month, Gov. Greg Abbott issued a statewide disaster proclamation for all of Texas’ 254 counties in response to screwworm cases in the state. The parasitic fly has mostly infested livestock so far, but it was also caught in a dog.
After a screwworm infested zone was established, the Texas Animal Health Commission put quarantine orders in parts of 13 counties: Coke, Edwards, Gillespie, Kerr, Kimble, La Salle, Schleicher, Sutton, Tom Green, Uvalde, Val Verde, Webb and Zavala.
The quarantine orders effectively stop all warm-blooded animals, whether they are infected or not, from being moved out of the infested zone to other areas of Texas or other states. While this does slow the spread of the screwworm, some animal welfare groups worry it could unintentionally exacerbate animal shelter overcrowding.
Giamona is especially concerned for shelters in rural areas. Studies show that rural areas nationwide are under-funded and are often in shelter deserts, where there is little to no access to public animal services.
“They don’t have the resources we do,” Giamona said. “A lot of their setups are completely outdoors with very minimal coverage. So that would make animals in those shelters more susceptible.”
I for one would support an emergency appropriation to shelters in those counties, and others as needed, to prevent any mass-euthanasia scenario.,