@USDA has confirmed multiple cases of New World Screwworm in Texas.
We’re moving fast and smart. Last year, I rolled out a bold five-point plan to protect American livestock and stop this pest in its tracks:
1. Invest into our sterile fly production through the construction of a massive $750M sterile fly production facility at Moore Air Base.
2. Protect the U.S. border at all costs through enhanced surveillance, sterile insect dispersal, trapping, and livestock movement controls.
3. Maximize readiness by partnering with states on emergency plans, training, and securing treatments.
4. Take the fight directly to the screwworm with increased sterile fly dispersals across the U.S. - Mexico border.
5. Innovate our way to eradication through cutting-edge research, more efficient production, better traps, and next-generation tools.
We’re already executing that plan on the ground:
• 20-km zones with strict movement controls around both detections.
• Heightened surveillance and trapping across the area.
• Millions of sterile flies released weekly, 2 million aerial drops twice a week plus ground releases in the area to break the pest’s life cycle.
• Strike teams, mobile labs, and emergency treatments deployed through unified command with Texas partners.
Faced with the irresponsibility of both the Biden regime and too much of the Mexican one, we needed time — to prepare, to coordinate, and to ready the infrastructure to beat what was coming. We acted, and we got the time. Now the task is to turn the tide.
We eradicated New World Screwworm once before, and we will do it again!
For any questions, guidance, or feedback on NWS please email: screwworm@usda.gov