The U.S. Department of Agriculture has announced a plan to combat the spread of the New World screwworm, a flesh-eating parasite that affects cattle.
The USDA’s plan involves the construction of a fly production facility in Texas near the Mexico border, which will have the capacity to produce 300 million sterile flies per week.
Those flies produce no offspring when they mate, so overwhelming the population with them ideally leads to a reduction or eradication of the pest.
The USDA plan comes alongside a monthslong shutdown of the Mexico-U.S. border for cattle. The shutdown has affected Mexican cattle ranchers in Sonora, which borders Arizona, who are more than a thousand miles from the northernmost reported case of screwworm.
The New World screwworm parasite can be deadly and was eradicated from the U.S. in the 1960s.
