美国农业部周三晚宣布，South Texas 已确认一例 New World screwworm 病例。农业部长 Brooke Rollins 随后发文称，检测已确认这起感染，感染发现于 Texas 州 Zavala County 一头三周大的小牛。这标志着这种贪食的食肉蝇首次被发现突破 US-Mexico 边境，它们在过去几年一直沿 Central America 向北推进。
尽管 screwworm 曾经在美国地方性流行，但在 1960s 一场持续多年的控制行动中被根除。USDA 估计，将 screwworms 阻挡在美国之外，每年为畜牧业节省 $900 million。根据 USDA，5月28日，在 Mexico 的 Coahuila，一只五岁山羊身上发现一例病例，地点距离边境 25 miles。该病例是最近几天检测到的许多病例之一，其中还包括同样在 Coahuila 的一头小牛病例，距离边境仅 39 miles。
USDA 表示，正与 Texas Animal Health Commission 组建统一的 Incident Command Team，并向该地区派遣响应人员。它还在检测到感染的周围设立 20-kilometer (12.4-mile) 区域，用于隔离、移动限制，以及加强监测和诱捕苍蝇。美国正在 South Texas 建设一座耗资 $750 million 的不育蝇生产设施。USDA 称，它每周在 Mexico 以及 US-Mexico 边境投放 100 million 只不育昆虫，并将通过地面释放室在检出地点周边区域释放不育蝇，此外本周已通过空中在该地区释放 4 million 只苍蝇。
A case of New World screwworm has been confirmed in South Texas, the US Department of Agriculture announced Wednesday night. Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins later posted that testing had confirmed the infection, which was found in a three-week-old calf in Zavala County, Texas. It marks the first detected breach of the US-Mexico border by the ravenous flesh-eating flies, which have been making their way up through Central America for the past several years.
Although the screwworm was once endemic to the US, it was eradicated amid a yearslong control effort in the 1960s. The USDA estimates that keeping screwworms out of the US has saved the livestock industry $900 million each year. On May 28, a case was found 25 miles from the border in a five-year-old goat in Coahuila, Mexico, according to the USDA. The case was one of many detected in recent days, including a case in a calf just 39 miles from the border, also in Coahuila.
The USDA said it is setting up a unified Incident Command Team with the Texas Animal Health Commission and sending response personnel to the area. It is also setting up a 20-kilometer (12.4-mile) zone around the detected infection for quarantine, movement restrictions, and increased surveillance and fly trapping. The US is constructing a $750 million sterile fly production facility in South Texas. The USDA says it is dispersing 100 million sterile insects per week in Mexico and along the US-Mexico border, and it will release sterile flies via ground-release chambers in the area around the detection, in addition to the 4 million flies already being released in the area by air this week.