Rollins On NWS: We Took Our Eye Off The Ball

Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins told the House Ag Committee Thursday that a massive USDA effort is underway to halt the spread of the New World Screwworm found in the U.S. for the first time in over a generation. Rollins said USDA is using every tool possible to stop New World Screwworm, starting with a 20-kilometer perimeter near the infected calf in Texas.

“Around the detection, implementing quarantines, movement controls, and surveillance in the region," she told lawmakers Thursday. "In fact, I’ll be there next week. We've expedited a targeted release of sterile flies in the affected area to prevent the pest from reproducing and are increasing trapping for New World Screwworm flies along the border.”

Rollins stressed that the pest eliminated officially eradicated from the U.S. in 1966 poses no threat to food safety, though it’s a big concern to the cattle and dairy industry. She insisted USDA was prepared as New World Screwworm made its way up from Central America through Mexico, but conceded efforts to produce 400 million sterile flies, fell short.

"We as a country, we as a hemisphere, had taken our eye off the ball, thinking it was eradicated," Rollins said. "We got down to only a hundred million sterile flies in production a week in a facility in Panama.”

Rollins said President Trump greenlighted a $1 billion effort, including a new facility, the largest in the world, being built in Mission, TX. But it won’t be ready for months.

“That facility will come online next year. When it does, it will produce about 300 million flies per week in addition to the hundred million from Panama. And then, we outfitted an additional Mexican facility for another hundred million.”

But until the needed number’s reached, Rollins says trapping, surveillance, and veterinary drugs headed to Texas on Thursday will be key.

Cattle and dairy groups said USDA is using time-tested methods against the screwworm, while the National Milk Producers Federation urged officials to use caution in restricting cattle movement that could cost more than the screwworm itself.

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