USDA's Plan to Address New World Screwworm

This is Tim Hammerich of the Ag Information Network with your Farm of the Future Report.

The New World Screwworm is a devastating pest whose larvae from burrow into the flesh of a living animal, causing serious and often deadly damage. It can infest livestock, pets, wildlife, occasionally birds, and in rare cases, people. This past week U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins announced a proposed sterile fly production facility in Texas and other innovations designed to combat this threat.

Rollins… “With the capacity to produce 300 million sterile screwworm flies per week, and that's how we eradicate the parasite. This facility will triple our current output and eliminate our sole reliance on Panama and Mexico for sterile fly supply. It's a tactical move that ensures we are prepared and not just reactive, which is to date what we have really been working through. We will invest the federal government up to $750 million on this facility, and it will also create about 300 jobs. Second, we are launching up to $100 million in addition to the 750 million cutting edge technologies that can accelerate our response from novel traps and lures to modular sterile fly units. I'm calling on the brightest minds in the country to build on our existing tools and help us outpace this pest quickly and in the most innovative way possible.”