Val Verde County renews disaster declaration over screwworm threat

Val Verde County commissioners renewed the local disaster declaration on Wednesday, keeping emergency powers in place for another 20 days as the New World screwworm threat moved closer to Del Rio and the county’s ranches. The action matters right now because it preserves the legal and administrative tools officials may need if infestations worsen, while livestock owners, pet owners and wildlife managers brace for a parasite that attacks open wounds on warm-blooded animals.

County Judge Lewis G. Owens Jr. said the original declaration he signed on June 5 had expired on June 12, and he pushed for the renewal as the situation kept developing. The screwworm lays eggs in wounds, the larvae burrow into the flesh and feed on living tissue, making even a single case a serious concern for rural families, cow-calf operations and anyone with animals on the ground in Val Verde County.

Owens used the meeting to press state and federal agencies over what he described as patchwork communication. He said local ranchers are the people most likely to spot trouble first and called them the county’s “boots on the ground.” He also said information about flights releasing sterile screwworm flies had been inconsistent, and he described the interagency response as confusing and poorly coordinated. Commissioner Pct. 1 Kerr Wardlaw added a screenshot showing the flight path of aircraft that had recently dropped sterile flies over Val Verde and neighboring counties, a sign that eradication efforts are active but still unevenly explained to the people living under them.

The county is now operating inside a restricted response area, not just beside one. The Texas Animal Health Commission issued movement restrictions on June 10 for Edwards, Sutton and Val Verde counties after a June 9 detection in Edwards County helped expand the infested zone. That followed the first U.S. New World screwworm case of 2026, confirmed June 3 in a 3-week-old calf in Zavala County. State and federal partners say they are conducting surveillance, epidemiological investigations and response protocols across the infested zone.

Washington has stepped up the response, but local officials still say the picture on the ground is murky. USDA moved sterile-fly dispersal aircraft and insects toward the border on Jan. 30, completed a sterile fly dispersal facility in Edinburg on Feb. 9, and launched a Grand Challenge with up to $100 million for new tools. Even so, county leaders in Del Rio are still waiting for tighter coordination, clearer flight schedules and stronger enforcement of the response they say rural residents need now. The next decisions will be whether the restrictions widen again, whether sterile-fly operations become more consistent, and whether Val Verde has to renew its declaration again when these 20 days run out.