A screwworm disease that can eat meat has been found in South Texas, the USDA says

“When false information comes out, it creates panic,” Rollins said Tuesday, according to the Texas Tribune. “And rightfully so, especially if it’s coming from elected officials and the media.”

Wednesday, Reuters reports that McLaughlin thinks the fly was here. He said samples taken Tuesday from two calves at a farm in La Pryor, Texas, are being tested for possible screwworm infection, including one infection in the stomach wound of one cow. McLaughlin said he had seen pictures and videos of the animals and that the larvae seen inside looked like screwworm larvae.

Reuters was shown one of the images, which it said showed “several maggot-like larvae inside a circular blood wound on the animal,” but said it “could not confirm the image.”

“At this point, it has not been confirmed that it is a New World worm,” McLaughlin told the site. “It looks like it, but it’s not confirmed.”

It is unclear, at this time, if the sample the USDA reported was one of the ones McLaughlin reported. We will update this article if more is reported.

The return of the Screwworm

Screwworms were once common in the US, but were eradicated in the 1960s amid efforts to exterminate their populations. This is done by aerial bombardment of sterile male flies, which is a very effective weapon against the parasite. The abundance of dud studs keeps the males out, preventing them from mating with the females, which usually only mate once.

With this method, called the Sterile Insect Technique, flies were eliminated not only in the US, but in all of Central America. He was declared extradited from Panama in 2006.

Until recently, the worm population was kept on the road through the Darién Gap on the Panama-Colombia border. The USDA has partnered with Panamanian officials to build a fly hatch at the intersection to produce sterile flies and hold the line. But in 2022, the barrier was breached, and the flies have been flying north ever since.

In response, the US has stepped up surveillance and search operations in Texas. It is also building a $750 sterile fly production facility in South Texas. The USDA says it is currently spraying 100 million insects a week in Mexico and along the US-Mexico border to keep the flies from moving forward.