New World screwworm detected 25 miles from Texas border

A flesh-eating New World screwworm has moved to within 25 miles of the Texas border, raising the stakes for ranchers, federal officials and consumers at a time when the U.S. cattle herd is already tight and beef prices are elevated. The latest detection was found in a five-year-old goat in Coahuila, Mexico, the closest confirmed case in the current outbreak, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

USDA officials said Tuesday that they have tracked 32 cases in Coahuila, including 19 active cases, while Mexico has logged at least 26,216 screwworm cases overall, with more than 2,700 still active. Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins said the discovery underscored a serious threat to livestock, and Texas Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller called it a “wake-up call” and said Texas was “squarely in the crosshairs.”

The concern is not abstract. New World screwworm flies lay eggs in open wounds, and the larvae feed on living flesh, which can turn routine injuries into lethal infections in cattle, goats, horses and wildlife. The USDA has warned for months that a U.S. outbreak could cost Texas alone about $1.8 billion, a figure that reflects not just animal losses but the expense of containment, eradication and trade disruption. With Texas the nation’s biggest cattle-producing state, even a limited incursion could ripple through ranch income and retail beef costs.

Federal agencies are trying to keep the parasite out. USDA Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service says New World screwworm is not currently present in the United States, all southern ports of entry remain closed to livestock trade and the agency is still dispersing 100 million sterile insects per week in Mexico and along the U.S.-Mexico border. The agency updates its Mexico case map and list twice a week, on Tuesdays and Thursdays at 5:00 p.m. ET, and says the release area is adjusted based on science and modeling.

The control effort is a reminder that the U.S. once beat the pest back before. The American Veterinary Medical Association says the country eradicated New World screwworm from within its borders in 1966 using the sterile insect technique, and that barrier has long depended on coordinated fly production and dispersal programs. USDA shifted those efforts on January 30, 2026, reallocating aircraft and sterile insects to reinforce the border after saying the northernmost active case in Mexico was then about 200 miles away.

The outbreak has now spread through all countries in Central America and Mexico since the 2023 outbreaks in Panama and Costa Rica, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says, with more than 171,700 animal cases and more than 2,070 human cases reported across the outbreak region as of June 2, 2026. U.S. health officials say the immediate risk to people in the United States remains low, but the latest case shows how close the livestock threat has come to crossing into the country.