Not to Alarm Anyone, but Flesh-Eating Screwworms Have Entered the US

Key points

• A case of New World screwworm has been confirmed in South Texas, the US Department of Agriculture announced Wednesday night.
• It marks the first detected breach of the US-Mexico border by the ravenous flesh-eating flies, which have been making their way up through Central America for the past several years.
• In a social media post on Wednesday afternoon, the USDA revealed that a sample from Texas had been sent to the Veterinary Services Laboratories (NVSL) in Ames, Iowa, for confirmatory testing of a screwworm infection.
• Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins later posted that the testing had confirmed the infection, which was found in a three-week-old calf in Zavala County, Texas.
• Chatter of a screwworm detection had already been building this week, rattling the US cattle industry.