Texas governor wants to speed up work on a fly-breeding factory to fight a cattle parasite

[Omaha Steve]

Source: AP

By JOHN HANNA
Updated 4:21 PM CDT, June 5, 2026

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott expressed concern Friday that a new factory isn’t expected to start breeding sterile New World screwworm flies for more than a year as a big part of the effort to stop its flesh-eating larvae from threatening the $113 U.S. billion cattle industry.

Abbott pledged Texas will help the U.S. Department of Agriculture accelerate construction of the $750 million breeding facility outside Edinburg, Texas, about 20 miles (32 kilometers) north of the U.S.-Mexico border. He said Texas is willing to spend its own funds to see that construction is “24 hours a day, seven days a week.”

Without greater sterile fly production, Abbott said during a news conference in the state capital of Austin, “We cannot make it through a second summer.”

The USDA confirmed an infestation of New World screwworm fly larvae this week in a 3-week-old calf in La Pryor, Texas, about 100 miles (161 kilometers) southwest of San Antonio and 50 miles (80 kilometers) from the Mexico border. It’s the first case confirmed in Texas since 1966.



Read more: https://apnews.com/article/screwworm-flesh-eating-parasite-cattle-texas-abbott-fe0ee5f6e04a97b447d79542a0d31a04

[Blues Heron]

1. Call Mike Pence!

[OC375]

2. Roughly enough wild game in the whole state of Illinois to feed Chicago for a week.

Then, no game again ever until animals migrate back, but get they eaten before they can repopulate, and besides the other states ate theirs too.

Be interesting to see what we eat when beef stops being a realistic protein source for most folks. Add in some avian influenza and you have yourself a real mess. We really do need all 5 to keep the wheels on the bus the way our society is currently set up to run.

Beef
Chicken
Turkey
Pork
Fish

And of course, when one goes, we hit the other sources ever harder, loosen regulation, etc...

Not good news.

[walkingman]

3. Rumor here in Texas is that the stench of the GOP here in Texas is attracting the

"New World Screwworm Fly". So until the state can rid itself of these stinking folks the problem poses a threat to not only Texas but the rest of the US.

[Karasu]

4. Deregulation is literally the reason all this shit is making a comeback after 60 years, so...

[Bluestocking]

5. So the screwworm is actually a maggot

Isn’t that ironic. Texas voted MAGAt so it’s karma big time.

[LetMyPeopleVote]

6. The idiocy of the DOGE bros (who probably thought "screwworm" was a hilarious joke) will haunt us for years to come.

Link to tweet

[Wonder Why]

7. It's amazing how fast repugs become Democrats wanting the government to be active in these things

when it is their dollars on the line?

Shouldn't it be left to private industry to profit from this?

What if the solution turns out to be a vaccine? Worse, an mRNA one like Covid ones?

And all those worthless bureaucrats that would be needed?

Shouldn't it be left to God?

Shouldn't those MAGA pastors just pray for it to go away?

Shouldn't we burn more coal to provide the power?

Do we really need those libtard scientists?

Remember the mantra "Thoughts and prayers!"

[hamsterjill]

8. Hot Wheels knows where his bread is buttered.

He knows he'd better get something going before all of the big cattle baron donors start riding his sorry ass.

Don McLaughlin, the former mayor of Uvalde, Texas (the one who confronted Beto at the press conference about the Robb shooting) is now a Congressman and he's been on the screwworm issue for a while as he represents the two of the three counties that have been declared disaster areas. Hot Wheels knows he needs to catch up.

[LudwigPastorius]

9. "Texas governor wants to speed up work on a fly-breeding factory"

Texas already has the state Office of Attorney General.

I'm sure fly breeding there would be a cinch since it's overflowing with Ken Paxton's shit.

[photokat]

10. GOP carcasses

Make good fly production, I hear.

[squiregeek]

11. A Bit Late

This clown has been governor for eleven years. Is the existence of this threat been a secret all this time? What has he been waiting for?