USDA to deploy New World screwworm sterile flies in Texas

The US Department of Agriculture (USDA) is shifting gears on its sterile fly dispersal strategy and bringing its New World screwworm (NWS) mitigation efforts even closer to home. On Jan. 30, the agency’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) announced that its 100 million sterile flies that are produced every week will begin to be dispersed along the US-Mexico border, including the Texas side of the border.

USDA is reallocating aircraft to disperse the sterile insects into a region 50 miles into Texas, along the US border with the state of Tamaulipas, Mexico

“At Secretary [Brooke] Rollins’ direction, our highest priority is protecting the United States from screwworm,” said Dudley Hoskins, undersecretary of marketing and regulatory programs for USDA. “The northernmost active case of NWS in Mexico is still about 200 miles away from the border, but we’ve seen cases continue to spread in Tamaulipas and further south in Mexico, so we are proactively shifting our polygon as we make every effort to prevent NWS from reaching our border.”

Last month, Mexico’s National Service of Agro-Alimentary Public Health, Safety and Quality (SENASICA) confirmed eight new cases of NWS in the state of Tamaulipas.

“It’s just plain cowboy logic — when you’re seeing this many cases this fast, it tells you there may be established screwworm fly populations in Tamaulipas,” said Texas Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller, responding to the appearance of the new cases. “We’re grateful sterile fly deployment has begun but make no mistake: Texas producers need to stay on high alert along our border.”

While no detection of NWS has been found in the United States yet, the closest has come within 200 miles from the border, according to USDA.

The agency continues in its intensive surveillance and monitoring of the parasitic pest, with teams checking 121 NWS-specific traps across high-risk areas of border states. Meanwhile, they continue to leverage thousands of fruit fly/insect traps aligned all along the Southern border. To date, over 42,000 flies from traps in all locations have been submitted to APHIS for identification. No NWS detections have been discovered through these traps.