AUGUST 22, 2025 | VOLUME 30 | ISSUE 15
Farm Bureau Press USDA UNVEILS PLAN TO GUARD AGAINST NEW WORLD SCREWWORM
U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins announced Aug. 15 the United States Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) plan to construct a new sterile fly production facility at the former Moore Air Force Base in Edinburg, Texas, to combat New World screwworm. Built in partnership with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the site will be the first of its kind in the United States in decades, capable of producing up to 300 million sterile screwworm flies per week. By flooding the environment with sterile male flies, USDA aims to disrupt screwworm reproduction and suppress populations before they reach the U.S. border. This facility will work in tandem with existing plants in Panama and Mexico, which together produce about 200 million sterile flies weekly.
The USDA’s plan represents one of the largest federal investments in livestock protection in decades. The USDA will dedicate up to $750 million to build the new sterile fly production facility, along with $100 million for new technologies such as traps, lures and sterilization methods. An additional $8.5 million is being spent on a sterile insect dispersal facility at the same location in South Texas, while $21 million is going toward renovations at the Metapa, Mexico plant to boost its fly production by 60-100 million additional flies. Together, these efforts total nearly $880 million in combined spending to keep the screwworm out of the U.S. Planned efforts include developing new traps and lures, stockpiling therapeutics and advancing sterilization techniques to scale quicker in response to outbreaks. Prevention efforts are also being expanded along the southern border. More horse-mounted USDA surveillance staff or “Tick Riders,” specially trained detection dogs and new vehicle-based inspection systems
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A PUBLICATION OF THE ARKANSAS FARM BUREAU FEDERATION