COLDSPRING, Texas — Texas officials are bracing for what Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller calls a potentially statewide threat as flesh‑eating New World screwworms continue pushing north through Mexico. The threat prompted Governor Greg Abbott to issue a rare statewide disaster declaration and activate emergency powers before the parasite reaches the border.
Although the screwworm has not yet entered Texas, officials warn its rapid spread toward the Rio Grande poses a “serious threat to Texas’s livestock industry and wildlife,” and the declaration allows the Texas New World Screwworm Response Team to bypass red tape and deploy state assets immediately if an infestation is detected.
“State law authorizes me to act to prevent a threat of infestation that could cause severe damage to Texas property, and I will not wait for such harm to reach our livestock and wildlife,” Abbott wrote in a statement on Friday. “With this statewide disaster declaration, the Texas [New World Screwworm] Response Team can fully utilize all state government prevention and response resources to prevent the re-emergence of this destructive parasite. Texas is prepared to fully eradicate this pest if need be.”
The Texas governor ordered the following in advance of the screwworm’s arrival in the Lone Star State:
- Directing the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department (TPWD) and the Texas Animal Health Commission (TAHC) to establish a joint Texas New World Screwworm Response Team
- Partnering with the U.S. Department of Agriculture and Secretary Brooke Rollins to create a new $750 million Domestic Sterile NWS Production Facility in Edinburg, Texas
At the San Jacinto County Republican Party Reagan/Trump Dinner on Saturday night, Commissioner Miller delivered his bluntest warning yet, telling ranchers, hunters, and pet owners that the parasite is far closer — and far more active — than it should be this time of year.
“We’ve got swarms of screwworm flies 187 miles south of the Rio Grande, and it’s winter,” Miller told the audience. “We shouldn’t have any active flies right now, but it’s been a mild winter. If they’re active in the middle of winter, look out when spring or early summer gets here.”
Mexico’s animal‑health agency SENASICA confirmed multiple active screwworm infestations across the country, including a growing cluster in Tamaulipas, the border state directly south of Texas. Mexican officials report 16 total cases in Tamaulipas, with 13 still active, and hundreds more across Veracruz and other regions.
USDA and SENASICA jointly identified one of the northernmost detections in González, Tamaulipas, involving a cow with no travel history — a sign the parasite is now spreading locally rather than being carried in from the south. Across Mexico and Central America, health authorities have documented more than 1,190 human cases and seven deaths, along with 601 active animal cases and 24 hospitalizations in Mexico alone.
Miller said the threat extends far beyond cattle ranchers. Texas has 200 mammal species, all susceptible to screwworm infestations. The threat includes pets and humans, the Texas Ag Commissioner told the gathered Republican elected officials, candidates, and supporters. Mexico has already recorded 18 human cases and two deaths.
“This will impact everybody in some form,” Miller told Breitbart Texas in an exclusive interview. “Livestock, wildlife, pets — even people. Ranchers, deer hunters, pet owners — get ready.”
The commissioner also criticized the federal government’s reliance on sterile‑fly releases, noting that USDA released five billion sterile flies over the past year in Mexico but “we have the exact same number of cases we had when we started — somewhere between 800 and 1,200.”
The sterile‑fly program, used for decades to suppress New World screwworm populations, works by releasing mass‑produced male flies sterilized with gamma radiation, overwhelming wild males in the environment. Because female screwworms mate only once in their lifetime, a female that mates with a sterile male produces eggs that never hatch, causing the population to collapse over successive generations.
USDA and its Panama‑based COPEG facility typically release hundreds of millions of sterile males per week into outbreak zones, a strategy that successfully eradicated the parasite from the United States and Mexico in the 20th century. According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, this “sterile insect technique” remains the backbone of the binational screwworm barrier program that protects the U.S. livestock industry.
Despite Mexico and the USDA releasing 100 million sterile flies per week in affected regions, the outbreak has not retreated. Texas officials warn that the parasite’s continued northward movement, combined with an unusually mild winter, has allowed screwworm populations to remain active far later in the season than normal. With confirmed swarms now within 187–197 miles of the Texas border, state leaders say the threat of the flesh‑eating parasite crossing into Texas is no longer theoretical but a matter of timing.
“We’re not gaining any ground,” Miller said. “Some of those flies are being released just south of the border, and the screwworm is still spreading north.”
Texas officials partnered with the U.S. Department of Agriculture and Secretary Brooke Rollins to build a $750 million sterile‑fly production facility in Edinburg, Texas, though Miller warned that it will take three years for the facility to be fully operational.
Miller said Texas does have tools that weren’t widely available during the last U.S. screwworm outbreak in the 1970s, including modern antiparasitic medications that can help protect livestock and pets. “Farmers know these products. They’re readily available,” he said, urging Texans to consult veterinarians for proper use.
The New World screwworm is a flesh‑eating parasitic fly whose larvae infest any warm‑blooded animal, including livestock, wildlife, pets, and, in rare cases, humans. The adult fly seeks out open wounds, cuts, surgical sites, or natural body openings and lays clusters of eggs along the edges of the tissue, health officials warn. When the eggs hatch, the larvae burrow deeper into living flesh, feeding aggressively and causing rapidly expanding wounds that can become fatal if untreated.
Unlike typical maggots that consume dead tissue, screwworm larvae attack healthy, living tissue, which is what makes the parasite so destructive. Transmission occurs when adult female flies move from one host to another, laying eggs in fresh wounds. A single female can lay hundreds of eggs at a time, allowing infestations to spread quickly through herds, wildlife populations, and even household pets.
The New World screwworm was eradicated in the United States in 1975 after a devastating outbreak that produced 29,000 cases in a single summer. Miller said the key tool used then — a fly bait that killed adult screwworms — is no longer available because USDA deemed it environmentally insensitive.
“I invited officials from Mexico and 11 Central American countries to my office and gave them the research on how to make the bait,” Miller said. “They were elated. No one had told them about it.”
With the parasite now within striking distance of the Texas border and showing unusual winter activity, Miller said the state must be ready for a rapid response.
“I hope I’m wrong,” he told the crowd in Coldspring. “But we’ll probably get them.”
As the parasite pushes steadily north and winter temperatures fail to slow its advance, Texas officials say the state is entering a critical window where preparation will determine whether the screwworm becomes a localized emergency or a statewide crisis. With Mexico still reporting hundreds of active cases and the sterile‑fly barrier struggling to contain the outbreak, the threat to Texas livestock, wildlife, and even household pets is no longer hypothetical. The message from the ground in Coldspring was unmistakable: Texas may not be able to stop the screwworm from reaching the border, but it intends to be ready when it does.
Bob Price is the Breitbart Texas-Border team’s associate editor and senior news contributor. He is an original member of the Breitbart Texas team. Price is a regular panelist on Fox 26 Houston’s What’s Your Point? Sunday morning talk show. He also serves as president of Blue Wonder Gun Care Products.
