{"id":715,"date":"2026-06-04T17:46:53","date_gmt":"2026-06-04T17:46:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/crosscountrymovingteams.com\/?p=715"},"modified":"2026-06-04T17:46:53","modified_gmt":"2026-06-04T17:46:53","slug":"flesh-eating-fly-found-in-texas-cattle-for-first-time-in-decades","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/crosscountrymovingteams.com\/?p=715","title":{"rendered":"Flesh-eating fly found in Texas cattle for first time in decades"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins said the case was in a 3-week-old calf in LaPryor, Texas, about 50 miles (80 kilometers) from the Mexico border. Texas State Veterinarian Bud Dinges said he has established a 12-mile (20-kilometer) quarantine zone, prohibiting the movement of any warm-blooded animal \u2014 including pets \u2014 outside that zone without an inspection.<\/p>\n

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Rollins said there have been no other detections of the fly in the U.S., and officials were quick to say that while the fly\u2019s larvae are a threat to livestock production, they don\u2019t infest food. Properly treated, even the infested calf should recover, Rollins said.<\/p>\n

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Rollins, U.S. and Texas agriculture officials, and cattle industry leaders have been sounding public alarms about the fly\u2019s\u00a0movement across Mexico\u00a0for more than a year, spurred on by memories of it causing tens of millions of dollars of losses \u2014 potentially billions in today\u2019s dollars \u2014 before its eradication in the 1970s.<\/p>\n

It is the first case confirmed in Texas since 1966, Rollins said.<\/p>\n

The months of effort to keep the fly out of the U.S. have included dropping millions of sterile screwworm flies in the area to mate with wild females \u2014 the same method used successfully before the fly was eradicated. Rollins said the USDA is confident enough in its preparations that it believes \u201cthere is no threat of mass infestation.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is no reason to believe this incursion will result in establishment of the pest in our country,\u201d Rollins said.<\/p>\n

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The announcement of the suspected case comes only a day after Rollins had an online news conference to highlight the nearness of the threat, with cases been confirmed in Mexico as close as 25 miles (40 km) from the border \u2014 and to outline the USDA\u2019s efforts to combat it.<\/p>\n

The New World Screwworm fly is a tropical species that decades ago infested cattle in warm weather across the southern United States, but it was contained in Panama until late in 2024.<\/p>\n

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The female fly lays its eggs in open wounds or mucous membranes and they hatch into larvae that eat flesh \u2014 making them unlike most fly species \u2014 and can infest livestock, wild mammals, household pets and even humans. Infestations can lead to death if left untreated.<\/p>\n

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In August 2025, federal health officials confirmed a case\u00a0in a Maryland resident\u00a0who had traveled to El Salvador, but the victim recovered and officials found no transmission of the parasite. Before that, the last outbreak was in the Florida Keys in September 2016, mostly among wild deer, and it was contained early the next year without spreading further.<\/p>\n

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The female flies mate once in their monthslong lives, and if they do so with a sterile fly, their eggs would not hatch \u2014 and the population would die out over time. Past eradication efforts were so successful that the U.S. shut down facilities for breeding sterile flies, leaving only one in Panama for decades.<\/p>\n

That is changing. The USDA dedicated $21 million to convert a fruit-fly breeding facility in southern Mexico into one for breeding screwworm flies, opened\u00a0a new center for dispersing sterile flies\u00a0bred elsewhere in southern Texas and has started construction on a $750 million screwworm fly factory there. The breeding facility in Mexico should be operating next month, Rollins said.<\/p>\n

Officials also deployed 8,000 fly traps along the U.S.-Mexico border, and Rollins said the USDA has tested more than 58,000 fly samples, along with 19,000 wild animals.<\/p>\n

Rollins also closed the U.S.-Mexico border last year to livestock imports from Mexico, a decision she defended during her news conference Tuesday. The fly also can travel with people and their pets and with wild animals, officials noted, but Rollins stressed Wednesday evening that it doesn\u2019t fly great distances on its own.<\/p>\n

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Dinges said ranchers and pet owners need to understand that it\u2019s important to respect the quarantine zone.<\/p>\n

\u201cPlease help us prevent any further movement of this pest by staying put,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

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Texas State Veterinarian Bud Dinges said he has established a 12-mile quarantine zone near the Mexico border.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":714,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[169],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-715","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-food-and-drink"],"yoast_head":"\nFlesh-eating fly found in Texas cattle for first time in decades - Cross Country Moving Team<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/crosscountrymovingteams.com\/?p=715\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Flesh-eating fly found in Texas cattle for first time in decades - Cross Country Moving Team\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Texas State Veterinarian Bud Dinges said he has established a 12-mile quarantine zone near the Mexico border.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/crosscountrymovingteams.com\/?p=715\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Cross Country Moving Team\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-06-04T17:46:53+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/crosscountrymovingteams.com\\\/?p=715#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/crosscountrymovingteams.com\\\/?p=715\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"admin\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/crosscountrymovingteams.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/1b8121bfb9a1c55d1fff3fca675fceaa\"},\"headline\":\"Flesh-eating fly found in Texas cattle for first time in decades\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-06-04T17:46:53+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/crosscountrymovingteams.com\\\/?p=715\"},\"wordCount\":714,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/crosscountrymovingteams.com\\\/?p=715#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/crosscountrymovingteams.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/06\\\/97a1a453b737e2fb62da05a5105ff3e2.webp\",\"articleSection\":[\"Food and drink\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/crosscountrymovingteams.com\\\/?p=715#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/crosscountrymovingteams.com\\\/?p=715\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/crosscountrymovingteams.com\\\/?p=715\",\"name\":\"Flesh-eating fly found in Texas cattle for first time in decades - 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