EDINBURG, TEXAS (RFD NEWS) — A new sterile fly dispersal facility is now up and running near the Texas-Mexico border, marking a major step in the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) five-point plan fight against the potential arrival of the New World screwworm.
Texas Governor Greg Abbott joined U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins this week to officially open the facility at an airbase in Edinburg, Texas. The goal is to protect the agricultural community in South Texas and beyond from the destructive flesh-eating pest.
Mike Risica of Rio Beef Feed Yard remembers firsthand the devastation caused by screwworm outbreaks decades ago.
“I was 10 years old when that happened in the 70s, and it was very cruel,” Risica said. “Those screwworms, the fly would lay eggs on any open wound, whether it be the navel of a calf, a horn of cows, or coyotes, to ocelots to deer. And when those eggs hatched, the larvae would start to eat flesh. And many, many ranchers and farmers lost a bunch of cattle if they didn’t spot them real quickly, and they would actually just eat the animal.”
The sterile fly strategy is designed to interrupt the pest’s reproductive cycle. Risica says the process is straightforward but effective.
“They’re bringing the sterile flies out of Panama and Mexico, and they’re going to bring hundreds of millions of them, and they’re going to distribute them all across South Texas and down into Mexico,” he said. “And what that does is, the female only mates one time in a life. So when they sterilize these males, they mate with the female, and they become sterile. So when they lay an egg, it is a sterile egg.”
The sterile New World screwworm flies are marked with a fluorescent dye that transfers to adult flies when they emerge. Under ultraviolet light, the dye causes the flies to glow, making them easily identifiable for monitoring purposes.
In this election year, the screwworm threat is also becoming a campaign issue. Nate Sheets, a candidate for Texas Agriculture Commissioner, says the impact is already being felt.
“I think the New World screwworm effect has already hit the grocery store shelves because we’ve had the border closed, and we’ve not been able to have animals come into the system, and so that’s already started to impact,” Sheets said. “But we have the lowest beef herd in Texas that we’ve had in 70 years, with the highest prices. So we really need to incentivize ranchers to start to hold back animals.”
Texas State Rep. Janie Lopez says officials are taking every possible precaution.
“At this point, we have to try to take every single action that we can,” Lopez said. “And, we saw that there was a fly just 80 miles away from us, and so it’s very important that we take all the crucial steps.”
Democratic U.S. House Rep. Vicente Gonzalez, whose South Texas district borders Mexico, issued a statement saying:
Producers say they are not waiting for the pest to arrive before acting.
“We’re examining the cattle, anything that might have an open wound. We just make sure, so we are taking precautions now,“ Risica said.
Rep. Lopez added, “Well, we have constituents who have gone through this before, and so they know how concerning this is. And so constituents have been keeping an eye out for this. They have reached out to our offices. We’re connecting them with USDA so that they can get supplies or other resources that are needed so that we can combat this situation.”
Sheets says vigilance is critical.
“You know, I think everybody is paying attention to their animals,” he said. “I mean, being diligent about looking out and making sure that the animals have open wounds, that they’re treating those and looking for any possible outbreaks, especially down here in South Texas. And so I think being diligent is the greatest course of action right now. And if you think that you see something, get that thing and send it to Texas Animal Health and have it tested to ensure that it’s not a New World Screwworm.”
Rep. Gonzalez says he is “advocating for Congress to intervene, so we can prevent and eradicate this pest from upending our livestock and food supply.”
While federal and state officials move forward with sterile fly dispersal efforts, South Texas producers say they are staying alert — determined to prevent a repeat of the devastating outbreaks of the past.
