SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (KELO) – The US Department of Agriculture is confirming three new cases of animals infested by the New World screwworm fly — a calf and a goat in Texas, as well as a dog in New Mexico.

It’s been about 60 years since screwworm flies were last impacting cattle ranchers in the United States. But now, it’s back after years of being contained at the southern end of Panama, and it’s not just cows being infested.

 22-year-old arrested for aggravated assault Saturday 

“I think we had the report of a goat in Texas and even a dog. So, it’s not just cattle. We think about this as a cattle thing, but really it’s any warm-blooded animal,” Dr. Russ Daly, a veterinarian with SDSU Extension, said. “Not so much in birds, but especially when it comes to other livestock species or wildlife is really the wildcard here, so to speak. They can be in deer and feral pigs and all those animals can be infested too.”

Daly says the way the fly could come into the Midwest would be through an infested animal being moved into the area. He has tips for what producers or even pet owners could be on the lookout for.

“So, if there’s any wounds that pop up that seem unusual like where did that come from or why is that wound getting bigger and not healing up like it should, have a veterinarian come and take a look and make sure it’s the normal kind of things we deal with and not something really unusual like this,” Daly said.

As for the general population or people shopping at the meat market, Daly says there isn’t much to worry about.

“It’s not something that just wipes through a whole herd of cattle or the whole population, it’s more of an individual kind of here and there thing,” Daly said. “So, it could be that you only see one or two animals within a herd but those one or two animals could be pretty profoundly affected. So, in that regard, it’s probably not something that’s going to, you know, reduce the numbers of cattle or reduce the beef supply, you know, to cause any economic effect that way. And we should say too that this just affects living animals. The meat products that come from the livestock aren’t affected by this at all.”

Daly says movement restrictions have been put on the farms with infested animals in Texas.He says veterinarians do also have tools to treat infected animals that they didn’t have the last time the screwworm fly was in the country.

Copyright 2026 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

 For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KELOLAND.com.