The New World screwworm fly is back in Texas, and it’s a flesh-eating horror show. The U.S. Department of Agriculture confirmed its presence in south Texas for the first time in decades, igniting fears about the impact of DOGE cuts on the cattle industry.
A 3-week-old calf in La Pryor, Texas, about 50 miles from the U.S.-Mexico border, was the first case identified. Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins announced this alarming discovery.
This parasite’s larvae burrow into the healthy tissue of cattle, deer, horses, and other warm-blooded animals. The USDA warns that untreated infections can spread rapidly and become fatal within seven to ten days.
Despite Rollins claiming “there is no threat of mass infestation,” agriculture officials and cattle industry leaders in Texas have been on high alert regarding the parasite’s movement from Mexico for over a year.
Ranchers in southern Mexico have battled screwworm outbreaks since last year, leading to the Trump administration temporarily halting livestock imports from Mexico. Before the parasites were eradicated in the 1970s, they inflicted tens of millions of dollars in losses on cattle ranchers annually.
Just two months before the import suspension, the Elon Musk-led Department of Government Efficiency slashed funding for the United States Agency for International Development, which included a crucial program aimed at preventing the parasite's spread across the U.S.-Mexico border. This information comes from a March 2025 report by Agri-Pulse detailing cut programs sent to Congress.
The screwworm prevention program was among approximately 5,300 grants and programs eliminated from USAID. This program also tracked avian flu outbreaks in Asia.
Musk labeled USAID a “crazy waste of money” and a “radical-left political psy op,” accusing the agency of “paying media organizations to publish their propaganda.”
The exact impact of these cuts on the recent screwworm case remains unclear, but cattle industry leaders had already sounded alarms about the parasite’s swift advance through Mexico.
“For months, the screwworm has advanced rapidly through Mexico despite the USDA’s existing game plan,” Texas Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller stated on Wednesday.
Miller revealed he directly urged President Donald Trump to take decisive action, demanding that every available federal resource be deployed to combat this threat before it escalates into an agricultural disaster.
The USDA estimates that a screwworm outbreak akin to one in 1976 could lead to approximately $1.8 billion in losses for the Texas economy.
