{"id":48613,"date":"2026-06-10T11:21:17","date_gmt":"2026-06-10T18:21:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/?p=48613"},"modified":"2026-06-10T11:21:26","modified_gmt":"2026-06-10T18:21:26","slug":"screwworm-parasite-no-longer-contained-in-texas-as-trump-usda-doubles-down-on-efforts-to-blame-biden","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/2026\/06\/10\/screwworm-parasite-no-longer-contained-in-texas-as-trump-usda-doubles-down-on-efforts-to-blame-biden\/","title":{"rendered":"Screwworm Parasite \u2018No Longer Contained in Texas\u2019 as Trump USDA Doubles Down on Efforts to Blame Biden"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"U.S.<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Cattle are herded in a stable on June 5, 2026 in Hamilton, Texas. US Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins has confirmed the detection of the New World screwworm\u2014a parasitic fly whose larvae feed on the living tissue of warm-blooded animals\u2014in a cow in Zavala County, Texas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00a0(Photo by Brandon Bell\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis has nothing to do with Joe Biden,\u201d one senator said, \u201cbut Trump and DOGE definitely screwed our cattle industry.\u201d<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Julia Conley<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jun 09, 2026 (CommonDreams.org)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Trump administration<\/a> has emphasized in recent days that the New World screwworm infection found<\/a> in a calf in Texas<\/a> did not pose a threat to the United States<\/a>\u2019 larger cattle herd, which is at its lowest point in 75 years due largely to drought<\/a> conditions\u2014but the US Department of Agriculture<\/a> is now acknowledging<\/a> that cases of the parasite have been found outside the Texas containment zone and as far away as in New Mexico, as Republican officials attempt to blame the Biden administration<\/a> for the outbreak.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While Democratic lawmakers are among those connecting<\/a> the arrival of screwworm\u2014a flesh-eating bug that feeds off the living tissue of warm-blooded animals and had been eradicated in the US in 1966\u2014to cuts by President Donald Trump\u2019s Department of Government Efficiency<\/a> (DOGE<\/a>) that specifically targeted screwworm monitoring programs, Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins doubled down on claims that an \u201copen border policy\u201d under the Biden administration was to blame.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

RECOMMENDED…<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Democratic<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Talarico Calls on Trump USDA to \u2018Fully Staff\u2019 Agency to Confront Flesh-Eating Parasite Found in Texas Cattle<\/a><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"Food<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Food Prices Set for Summer Surge as Trump and GOP Stare Down Inflation \u2018Abyss\u2019<\/a><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis does trace back to the last administration and the open border policy, and the movement of millions of people and their animals up from South America through Central America<\/a>,\u201d said<\/a> Rollins with certainty on Monday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As David Dayen explained<\/a> at The American Prospect Tuesday, former President Joe Biden<\/a> placed a ban on bison, horse, and cattle imports from Mexico in 2024, which Trump lifted in February 2025. At the same time, DOGE<\/a>, under the leadership of Trump megadonor and tech billionaire Elon Musk<\/a>, cut screwworm monitoring efforts and animal disease control and prevention efforts, slashing 1,300 employees from USDA\u2019s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rollins did reinstate the live import ban last May as screwworm cases were rising in Mexico and began funding prevention programs in Texas. But a $600 million facility for breeding sterile screwworm flies\u2014a key component of successful eradication efforts\u2014is not scheduled to be completed until late next year, and sterile flies that have been dispersed from a facility that opened in February at Moore Air Force Base in South Texas only amount to \u201cabout one one-hundredth of what it would take each week<\/em> to eradicate the pest,\u201d Dayen wrote.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He also noted that Rollins has attempted to blame Biden\u2014who has not been in office since January 2025\u2014despite the fact that the total average lifespan of a screwworm fly is 21 days.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe more likely explanation is that an administration with an antipathy to government ignored government\u2019s purpose until it was too late,\u201d wrote Dayen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The USDA<\/a> established a 12-mile quarantine area around the affected area last week when the case was detected in South Texas, but on Monday the agency said another case had been found in Gillespie County, over 100 miles from where the initial case was reported.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A dog was also found to be infested in Lea County, New Mexico, more than 400 miles away.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

X post: https:\/\/x.com\/JRichieTX\/status\/2064058239415677141?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E2064058239415677141%7Ctwgr%5E9da4a00d0d7af909b7358dd03607f58393d1e30c%7Ctwcon%5Es1_c10&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.commondreams.org%2Fnews%2Fscrewworms-in-texas<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The parasite is not expected to affect food safety, as it feeds on living tissue, but the outbreak raises concerns about rising beef prices, which are already high due to the low volume of cattle in the US. The high prices of fertilizer and fuel due to the war in Iran, and of equipment and repairs due to Trump\u2019s tariff policy, have also put a strain on the cattle industry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe cattle producer in the US has already been under extreme financial stress,\u201d Joe Maxwell, president of Farm Action Fund and a farmer in Missouri, told The American Prospect. \u201cThis is serious, the screwworm outbreak. But it\u2019s even more serious because of the financial position they were already under.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In response to Rollins\u2019 claims, Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.) said<\/a> Tuesday: \u201cLet\u2019s be clear about what happened: DOGE cut the programs and staff that tracked dangerous outbreaks like screwworm.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSo this has nothing to do with Joe Biden,\u201d she said, \u201cbut Trump and DOGE definitely screwed our cattle industry.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Our work is licensed under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). Feel free to republish and share widely.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Julia Conley<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Julia Conley is a senior editor and staff writer for Common Dreams.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Full Bio ><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Cattle are herded in a stable on June 5, 2026 in Hamilton, Texas. US Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins has confirmed the detection of the New World screwworm\u2014a parasitic fly whose larvae feed on the living tissue of warm-blooded animals\u2014in a cow in Zavala County, Texas. \u00a0(Photo by Brandon Bell\/Getty… Continue reading → <\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1879],"tags":[335,2010],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48613"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=48613"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48613\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":48614,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48613\/revisions\/48614"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=48613"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=48613"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=48613"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}