US Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins unveiled multiple steps that USDA is planning to take to aggressively push back on the advance of the New World Screwworm that has traveled from Panama through Central America and now into Mexico. . Secretary Rollins spoke of four specific actions USDA is moving on to deal with the New World Screwworm, which at last report, is 370 miles south of the US- Mexican border.
Rollins announced Friday in Austin, Texas that USDA will build a new Sterile Fly Production Facility at the old Moore Air Base near Mission, Texas. The Secretary said the facility will, once up and running, be able to produce 300 million sterile flies weekly to help eradicate the New World Screwworm. This facility will bolster the production of the COPEG facility in Panama and the soon to be opened facility being reconfigured from a former fruit fly breeding and sterilization plant in Metapa de Domínguez, Chiapas, Mexico into a New World screwworm (NWS) sterile fly production plant. Rollins said the US facility would have a price tag of $750 million dollars and indicated that it will be fast tracked and could be operational in about a year. She added it will bring 300 jobs to south Texas.
Secretary Rollins also announced that $100 million dollars would be made available to involve public and private researchers and industry to develop cutting edge technology that could help in defeating the New World Screwworm.
The Secretary adds that there will be an expansion of what she called the Tick Riders in south Texas along the border to offer enhanced surveillance of wildlife that could be carrying larva of the New World Screwworm.
Finally- the Secretary reported that she was working almost daily with her counterpart in Mexico, Mexico Agriculture Secretary Julio Berdegué Sacristán, to put more USDA resources on the ground to help with monitoring exactly where the New World Screwworm flies are- and to ensure that the reports provided by Mexican officials are accurate. She also announced that Mexico has agreed to halt livestock movement in the current hot zones where the flies are active.
In answer to a question, the Secretary said the ban on live animals from Mexico, especially cattle, will remain in place as long as necessary to ensure the safety of the US Beef Cattle Herd, despite the supply chain problems being caused by thousands of cattle not being brought into the US from Mexico.
Secretary Rollins thanked President Trump for his support in being able to move quickly and aggressively against the New World Screwworm- saying that once she explained the serious nature of this invasion from the south, he instructed her to do what was needed to protect the US cattle industry and farmers and ranchers.
Click here for the detailed media release from USDA that describes the actions proposed by Secretary Rollins on Friday.
