Tipsheet

Flesh-Eating Parasites Threaten American Livestock Industry

Joseph Chalfant
Joseph Chalfant  |  June 06, 2026 3:00 PM

The U.S. Department of Agriculture has confirmed that the New World Screwworm has officially reemerged in Texas for the first time since the 1960s in a revelation that could upend the American livestock industry.

The NWS is a flesh-eating parasite that burrows into living livestock, pets, wildlife, and even humans and birds. Gov. Greg Abbott, who is working in partnership with the Trump administration, has already declared a disaster across the state of Texas after two separate cases were confirmed in young calves near the southern border.

Quarantine zones have been established in the surrounding area of the confirmed cases in hopes of containing the spread. Authorities are likewise dispersing millions of sterile flies each week in hopes of preventing their reproduction.

Initial projects had assumed that the NWS would make its way into the United States last year, but the USDA says that the Trump administration had managed to “buy time for this moment.” On June 1, confirmed cases of NWS were observed just one mile from the Texas border.

Authorities have reiterated that the U.S. food supply is safe, as the NWS does not infest meats or other foods, but only living tissue. Still, if these cases were to spread and become an epidemic, the American livestock industry could implode. Upon learning of the news, Canadian authorities have already instituted a prohibition on importing Texas cattle for the next three weeks.

The U.S. has eradicated the pest once before, with suppression methods eliminating the presence of the NWS in 1966. Similar efforts were successful across Mexico and Central America, but the NWS remained present near the Panama-Colombian border until their latest resurgence.