Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins told lawmakers on Wednesday that the agency under the Biden administration “really had no plans” when it came to New World screwworm.
“The Biden administration’s open border policies, combined with the Mexican cartel’s refusal to crack down on that through South and Central America, allowed the screwworm to move north for the first time in 50 years,” she told the Senate Agriculture Committee.
The Department of Agriculture has confirmed six cases of the New World screwworm in the U.S., including in a dog, a goat and four cattle. All cases are in Texas except for the dog, which is in New Mexico. Officials and cattle industry leaders have been voicing concerns about the parasite’s movement toward the U.S. since a case was found in southern Mexico in November 2024.
New World screwworm flies are a parasitic species found in South America and the Caribbean whose larvae feed exclusively on the tissue or flesh of warm-blooded mammals. The female screwworm lays her eggs in wounds or cavities. When the eggs hatch, they eat the animal alive. Animals are at risk of death if the screwworm is not treated.
Under the Trump administration, Rollins says, the agency quickly started preparing for screwworm.
“We saw it coming,” she said.
Rollins said that the agency broke ground six months ago on a sterile fly facility in Texas. The release of sterile flies is a proven method for fighting screwworms: When the sterile male flies mate with wild females, the female flies lay unfertilized eggs.
“The release of sterile flies is safe, environmentally friendly and offers a sustainable, non-toxic alternative to chemical pesticides,” according to the USDA. “It poses no risk to wildlife, livestock or people in infested areas.”
Rollins said that within four hours of the first confirmed screwworm case in a calf, the agency dropped 8 million sterile flies on top of the ranch in Texas.
“They have had no other cases, and this just proves the efficacy of the technology,” Rollins said.
Democrat Sen. Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota questioned how the agency can address critical threats like the screwworm when the Trump administration has cut certain resources.
“The Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service has lost 25% of its staff, including more than 300 employees in veterinary services alone, since the administration came in,” Klobuchar said.
Rollins responded that the agency is “prioritizing where the big threats are” and has drastically increased the number of employees within the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service who work on screwworm over the last 14 months.
Concerns about rising beef prices are mounting as ranchers are already dealing with the smallest cattle herd size in 75 years.
Rollins also put partial blame on the Biden administration for that.
“In America, there’s no question that the previous four years, to us, the ranchers were not number one on the policy list,” Rollins said.
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