The U.S. Department of Agriculture is planning to build a facility in Texas to produce sterile flies to combat the spread of a deadly flesh-eating parasite that’s been detected in parts of Mexico.
The New World Screwworm is a fly larva that burrows into the flesh of warm-blooded animals.
USDA announced it’s investing $8.5 million to build a facility in South Texas that will disperse sterile flies into northern Mexico to try to prevent the pest’s spread.
The flesh-eating worm was first detected in southern Mexico near the border with Guatemala in November 2024, prompting a months-long border shutdown for cattle. The USDA again closed the border to cattle imports last month.
The New World Screwworm has not been identified in the northern parts of Mexico, but many cattle ranchers in the region have been affected by the border shutdowns over the past six months.
USDA also recently announced an $21 million investment into an existing fly facility in southern Mexico, which it says will disperse an additional 60 to 100 million sterile flies a week.
The United States eradicated the New World Screwworm in the 1960s.
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