{"id":321924,"date":"2026-06-04T02:55:07","date_gmt":"2026-06-04T02:55:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/321924\/"},"modified":"2026-06-04T02:55:07","modified_gmt":"2026-06-04T02:55:07","slug":"flesh-eating-new-world-screwworm-fly-detected-in-south-texas-official","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/321924\/","title":{"rendered":"Flesh-eating New World screwworm fly detected in South Texas, official"},"content":{"rendered":"

The New World\u00a0screwworm fly<\/a> has been detected in South Texas, federal and state officials confirmed Wednesday, marking the first time in decades the flesh-eating insect has threatened the U.S. cattle industry, nationwide beef prices and the state’s wildlife.<\/p>\n

A sample collected from a 3-week-old calf in Zavala County was identified and confirmed as the fly\u2019s flesh-eating larvae at the U.S. Department of Agriculture\u2019s national veterinary lab in Iowa, the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department said in a news release. The agency said no other cases have been detected in animals in the Lone Star State so far.<\/p>\n

TPWD is working with USDA, Texas Animal Health Commission and other state officials in a joint incident response.\u00a0TAHC has established an infested zone in the area, and animal movement restrictions are in effect to prevent further spread of the pest.<\/p>\n

\u201cNWS can have devastating impacts on free-ranging wildlife populations and rural communities,\u201d David\u00a0Yoskowitz, TPWD executive director, said. \u201cTPWD, in partnership with our state and federal partners, will work diligently to respond to suspected cases of NWS, and to urge the public to monitor and report signs of an infestation in warm-blooded animals.\u201d<\/p>\n

The main threat to livestock stems not from the adult fly, but its larvae.<\/p>\n

NWS maggots can infest livestock and other warm-blooded animals, including in rare cases people. They most often enter an animal through an open wound and feed on the animal\u2019s living flesh. \u00a0<\/p>\n

Officials and cattle industry leaders have been sounding the alarm about the insect\u2019s movement across Mexico for more than a year. Last June, Gov. Greg Abbott directed officials to create a Texas New World Screwworm Response Team, warning a \u201creemergence\u201d of the parasitic fly could have devastating\u00a0\u2014 and deadly \u2014 consequences for the state\u2019s livestock.<\/p>\n

“Our food supply is 100% safe,” she wrote in the post. “This potential New World Screworm detection is being fully contained and is not a harm to the American food supply or consumer safety.”<\/p>\n

The case confirmed in Texas comes just a day after Rollins held a news conference to highlight how close the insect was to the state’s border with Mexico, saying the pest had been detected\u00a0as near as 25 miles.<\/p>\n

This reporting is part of the Future of North Texas, a community-funded journalism initiative supported by the Commit Partnership, Communities Foundation of Texas, The Dallas Foundation, the Dallas Mavericks, the Dallas Regional Chamber, Deedie Rose, Lisa and Charles Siegel, the McCune-Losinger Family Fund, The Meadows Foundation, the Perot Foundation, the United Way of Metropolitan Dallas and the University of Texas at Dallas. The News retains full editorial control of this coverage.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The New World\u00a0screwworm fly has been detected in South Texas, federal and state officials confirmed Wednesday, marking the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":321925,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[115244,27,29,28,98782],"class_list":["post-321924","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-texas","tag-news-environment","tag-texas","tag-texas-headlines","tag-texas-news","tag-tp-future-of-north-texas-energy-environment"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/321924","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=321924"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/321924\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/321925"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=321924"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=321924"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=321924"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}