President Trump’s Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins confirmed that a case of New World Screwworm (NWS) has been detected this week in a 3-year-old calf in Texas. It’s the first case in the U.S. since the 1960s.
As seen below, in front of the Oversight Committee, Rollins claimed “For years, we, as a country, as a hemisphere, had taken our eye off the ball, thinking it [screwworm] was eradicated.”
But Forbes reported Thursday that “the return of screwworm comes after the Musk-led Department of Government Efficiency, launched by the Trump administration, last year cut funding for a project dedicated to monitoring and containing New World screwworm in Central America.”
We are treating the confirmed case of New World Screwworm in a Texas cattle ranch with the utmost seriousness and are responding aggressively alongside our state partners @TAHC.
— Secretary Brooke Rollins (@SecRollins) June 4, 2026
USDA's proactive actions bought us nearly a year to prepare, as models had projected New World… pic.twitter.com/Ws5ceLc9ew
Trump critics at The Lincoln Project responded to the news by sharing a November 2025 clip of Rollins telling Fox News: “We’ve got the screwworm south of the border so our ports have been closed almost since the late spring…but the Trump administration has released a new plan, we are moving toward opening up five million acres of grazing land.”
Agriculture Sec @BrookeLRollins in November: "We have screwworm under control south of the border. Beef prices will come down by spring 2026"
— The Lincoln Project (@ProjectLincoln) June 4, 2026
Beef prices continue to rise, and screwworm is now in the US. https://t.co/U2maGVLXlP pic.twitter.com/2dpIeigfZZ
Rollins added: “Obviously, at some point soon, we’re gonna be reopening the borders. We’ve got screwworm under control south of the border, we still have a couple more things until we get there but we’re getting close. And the President is hyper, hyper focused on this.”
Rollins also added “Our numbers and our formulas are showing that prices will start coming down as soon as next spring and certainly by summer and fall next year.”
The Lincoln Project replied: “Beef prices continue to rise, and screwworm is now in the US.”
Texas Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller gave NBC News a contrasting view of U.S. preparedness, saying this week: “For months, the screwworm has advanced rapidly through Mexico in spite of the USDA’s existing game plan,” and “instead of using every available tool, USDA moved too slowly and relied solely on a partial solution that takes years to fully implement.”
Rep. Fletcher: The New World screwworm has been found in Texas. This flesh-eating parasite previously eradicated from the U.S. poses a huge threat to our cattle. Last March, the Trump administration fired more than 15,000 USDA employees and eliminated a program to contain the… pic.twitter.com/zvwbbn1iPl
— FactPost (@factpostnews) June 4, 2026
As seen above, Rep. Lizzie Fletcher (D-TX) said: “Last March, the Trump administration fired more than 15,000 USDA employees and eliminated a program to contain the screwworm in Central America. The threat of New World screwworm is just one consequence of the Trump administration’s reckless campaign to eliminate funding for government programs that Americans rely on.”
[NOTE: In April 2026, Rollins led a groundbreaking event for a $750 million sterile fly production facility at Moore Air Base in Edinburg, Texas to combat New World Screwworm. According to the New York Times, “Releasing sterile flies, which mate with wild female flies and drive the population toward eradication, is the only way currently to control the spread of the fly” and there’s only one other facility that produces sterile flies and that’s in Panama. Initial operational capability of the new facility in Texas is targeted for November 2027.]
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