USDA Announces New Plans to Combat Flesh-Eating Parasite Spreading From Mexico

USDA is investing $750 million in a facility in Texas to boost efforts to fend off the threat.

Cattle are held in a corral before being exported to the United States through the Jeronimo-Santa Teresa border crossing after Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins announced an agreement with Mexico on the management of the New World screwworm at the Chihuahua Regional Livestock Union facility, outside Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, on April 29, 2025. Jose Luis Gonzalez/Reuters

Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins announced on Aug. 15 a new plan to protect the United States from the threat posed by flesh-eating flies south of the border, the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) said in an Aug. 15 statement.

The parasite, New World screwworm (NWS), is a “devastating pest,” the agency said.