US readies $1 billion screwworm fight after Texas cattle cases
Why it matters: The parasite can ravage herds and disrupt cross-border livestock trade, though officials say it does not make beef unsafe to eat.
The U.S. is preparing a more than $1 billion campaign to contain the New World screwworm after officials confirmed cases in Texas cattle, including one in a calf in Zavala County. The Agriculture Department plans to spend about $750 million to build and run a facility that can produce up to 300 million sterile flies a week, the main tool used to suppress the pest. Federal officials have also deployed a response team in Texas and set livestock movement controls. The flesh-eating parasite, once eradicated in the U.S., has spread in Mexico, where authorities have logged more than 28,000 cases in two years. The U.S. has already suspended livestock imports through southern ports as officials try to keep the outbreak from becoming a wider hit to the cattle industry.