KERRVILLE, TEXAS (RFD NEWS) — The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) says New World screwworm has been detected in a sheep in northern Mexico, less than 31 miles from the U.S. Southern border. The discovery comes as the department continues efforts to prevent the dangerous livestock parasite from spreading north into Texas.
USDA’s Agricultural Research Service (ARS) opened a new livestock insect research laboratory in Kerrville last week, expanding the cattle industry’s defenses against New World screwworm, ticks, biting flies, and other invasive pests.
The 52,000-square-foot Knipling-Bushland U.S. Livestock Insects Research Laboratory includes advanced cattle facilities, laboratory space, and a genomics core. Researchers will develop surveillance tools, insecticides, treatments, and methods to address pesticide resistance.
USDA-ARS Acting Associate Area Director Kimberly Lohmeyer says the USDA has a long history of working to better educate itself on pests.
“The first lab was opened in 1946 and operated at that site. It was about 14 miles from where our current lab is,” Lohmeyer explains. “And so they did research there on all of these flies and ticks until the mid-1960s, when the lab was moved to its current location. During this whole time, ARS has never stopped working on screwworm. The origins of the work we did actually started back with screwworms in labs within Menard, Texas, in the 1930s. Our lab, which started here in Kerr County in the 1940s, was a consolidation of three other labs in the state of Texas that were all working on either screwworms or ticks.”
Their research also includes other biting insects like horn flies and stable flies.
The timing matters as the USDA continues efforts to keep the New World screwworm from reestablishing in the United States. The pest can injure or kill livestock, disrupt cattle movement, and raise costs for ranchers.
The facility houses two ARS research units focused on livestock arthropod pests and veterinary pest genetics. Kerrville researchers have contributed to pest-control work for about 80 years.
The laboratory honors Edward Knipling and Raymond Bushland, whose sterile insect technique helped eliminate screwworm from the United States decades ago. USDA says the same science remains central to ongoing prevention and eradication work.
The closure of the Mexican border to the cattle trade has had ripple effects through the sector. The Idaho Cattle Association says cut-off access to Mexican feed yards has led to increased traffic in their area.
“It’s creating competition in the markets. We see that right now,” Cameron Mulroney explains. “We’re seeing higher prices. We’re seeing day-old calves bringing $1,200, $1,300, and $1,400 at the sale barn. We’re seeing record prices all across the nation for different classes of cattle. Part of what is doing that is the impact on feeder supply.”
Mulroney says the increased action in the region is also impacting efforts to rebuild the national herd.
“If folks were maybe going to retain some heifers, or they were going to buy some heifers and save 10 to breed back, they have enough value at this point, and there’s enough demand by those feeders that those heifers are going into the chain,” Mulroney continues. “They’re not staying in the cow herd, so there’s no incentive to breed a cow or hold a cow over and breed her. If she misses a year, there’s good incentive to send them through the processing chain. But it’s compounding the whole supply issue that’s put us in the spot in the cattle cycle that we are at. From a consumer standpoint, it’s great. From a cow-calf standpoint, you know, we’re seeing great prices, which is allowing for good return and hopefully some of these guys to heal up from times when they maybe were operating in the negative.”
USDA closed the U.S.-Mexico border to all cattle about one year ago, and there is no indication when it may reopen.
