Texas Officials Brace for Screwworm Threat Advancing From Mexico Toward the Border
COLDSPRING, Texas — Texas officials are bracing for what Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller calls a potential statewide threat as carnivorous New World dung worms continue to push north through Mexico. The threat prompted Gov. Greg Abbott to issue a rare statewide disaster declaration and activate emergency powers before the parasite reached the border.
Although the screwworm has not yet entered Texas, officials warn that its rapid spread to the Rio Grande poses a “serious threat to Texas’ livestock industry and wildlife,” and the declaration allows the Texas New World Screwworm Response Team to bypass red tape and immediately deploy state resources if an infestation is detected.
“State law authorizes me to act to prevent a threatened infestation that could cause serious harm to Texas properties, and I will not wait until such harm reaches our livestock and wildlife,” Abbott wrote in a statement Friday. “With this statewide disaster declaration, Texas [New World Screwworm] The response team can fully utilize all state government prevention and response resources to prevent the re-emergence of this destructive pest. Texas is prepared to completely eradicate this pest if necessary.
The Governor of Texas ordered the following before the butcher worm arrived in the Lone Star State:
- Direct the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department (TPWD) and the Texas Animal Health Commission (TAHC) to establish a joint Texas New World Plugworm Response Team.
- Partnering with the U.S. Department of Agriculture and Secretary of State Brooke Rollins to create a new $750 million domestic sterile NWS production facility in Edinburg, Texas.
At the San Jacinto County Republican Party’s Reagan/Trump dinner Saturday night, Commissioner Miller issued his starkest warning yet, telling ranchers, hunters and pet owners that the parasite is much closer – and much more active – than it should be this time of year.
“We have swarms of butcher worms 187 miles south of the Rio Grande, and it’s winter,” Miller told the audience. “We shouldn’t have any flies active right now, but it’s been a mild winter. If they are active in mid-winter, watch out for when spring or early summer arrives.”
Mexico’s animal health agency SENASICA has confirmed several active infestations of hustle worms across the country, including a growing outbreak in Tamaulipas, the border state directly south of Texas. Mexican authorities are reporting 16 total cases in Tamaulipas, 13 of which are still active and hundreds more in Veracruz and other areas.
USDA and SENASICA jointly identified one of the northernmost detections in González, Tamaulipas, involving a cow with no travel history – a sign that the parasite is now spreading locally rather than being transported from the south. In Mexico and Central America, health authorities have documented more than 1,190 human cases and seven deaths, as well as 601 active animal cases and 24 hospitalizations in Mexico alone.
Miller said the threat extends far beyond livestock producers. Texas has 200 species of mammals, all of which are susceptible to worm infestations. The threat includes pets and humans, the Texas agriculture commissioner told the assembled Republican elected officials, candidates and supporters. Mexico has already recorded 18 human cases and two deaths.
“It will impact everyone in one way or another,” Miller told Breitbart Texas in an exclusive interview. “Livestock, wildlife, pets – even humans. Ranchers, deer hunters, pet owners – get ready.”
The commissioner also criticized the federal government’s reliance on sterile fly releases, pointing out that the USDA has released five billion sterile flies over the past year in Mexico, but that “we have exactly the same number of cases as we did at the beginning, between 800 and 1,200.”
The sterile fly program, used for decades to suppress New World beef worm populations, works by releasing mass-produced male flies sterilized by gamma radiation, thereby overwhelming wild males into the environment. Since female butcher worms only mate once in their lives, a female that mates with a sterile male produces eggs that never hatch, causing the population to collapse over successive generations.
The USDA and its Panama-based COPEG facility typically release hundreds of millions of sterile males each week into outbreak areas, a strategy that successfully eradicated the parasite in the United States and Mexico in the 20th century. According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, this “sterile insect technique” remains the backbone of the binational screwworm barrier program that protects the U.S. livestock industry.
Although Mexico and the USDA release 100 million sterile flies per week in affected regions, the epidemic has not receded. Texas officials warn that the parasite’s continued northward movement, combined with an unusually mild winter, has allowed butcher worm populations to remain active much later than usual in the season. With swarms now confirmed between 187 and 197 miles from the Texas border, state leaders say the threat of the carnivorous parasite crossing into Texas is no longer theoretical but a matter of timing.
“We’re not gaining any ground,” Miller said. “Some of these flies are being released just south of the border, and the butcher worm continues to spread north. »
Texas officials have partnered with the U.S. Department of Agriculture and Secretary of State Brooke Rollins to build a $750 million sterile fly production facility in Edinburg, Texas, although Miller warned it would take three years for the facility to be fully operational.
Miller said Texas has tools that were not widely available during the last worm outbreak in the United States in the 1970s, including modern antiparasitic drugs that can help protect livestock and pets. “Farmers are familiar with these products. They are readily available,” he said, urging Texans to consult veterinarians for proper use.
The New World bullfly is a carnivorous parasitic fly whose larvae infest all warm-blooded animals, including livestock, wildlife, pets, and in rare cases, humans. The adult fly seeks out open wounds, cuts, surgical sites or natural openings in the body and lays clusters of eggs along the edges of the tissues, health officials warn. When the eggs hatch, the larvae burrow deeper into living flesh, feeding aggressively and causing rapidly expanding wounds that can become fatal if left untreated.
Unlike typical maggots that consume dead tissue, screwworm larvae attack healthy, living tissue, which is what makes the parasite so destructive. Transmission occurs when adult female flies move from one host to another and lay eggs in fresh wounds. A single female can lay hundreds of eggs at a time, allowing infestations to spread quickly to herds, wildlife populations and even domestic animals.
The New World butcherworm was eradicated in the United States in 1975 after a devastating outbreak that caused 29,000 cases in a single summer. Miller said the key tool used at the time — a fly bait that killed adult butcher worms — was no longer available because the USDA deemed it environmentally insensitive.
“I invited officials from Mexico and 11 Central American countries to my office and told them about the research on how to make the bait,” Miller said. “They were delighted. Nobody had told them about it.”
With the parasite now within striking distance of the Texas border and showing unusual winter activity, Miller said the state needs to be prepared to respond quickly.
“I hope I’m wrong,” he told the crowd at Coldspring. “But we probably will.”
With the parasite steadily moving north and winter temperatures failing to slow its advance, Texas officials say the state is entering a critical window where preparedness will determine whether the cork worm becomes a localized emergency or a statewide crisis. With Mexico still reporting hundreds of active cases and the sterile fly barrier struggling to contain the outbreak, the threat to Texas livestock, wildlife and even pets is no longer hypothetical. The message from Coldspring was unequivocal: Texas may not be able to stop the meatworm from reaching the border, but it intends to be ready when it does.
Bob Price is the Breitbart Texas-Border Associate Staff Writer and Senior News Contributor. He is an original member of the Breitbart Texas team. Price is a regular panelist on Fox 26 Houston’s What’s Your Point? Sunday morning talk show. He is also president of Blue Wonder Gun Care Products.
