CDC Declares Emergency Over Screwworm in U.S. Cattle

Published 4 days ago

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Above: A poster with information on the New World Screwworm at the Texas Division of Emergency Management State Operations Center in Austin, Texas on June 5, 2026. Image credit: Joel Angel Juarez/Getty Images

The Spin

DOGE's reckless budget slashing has left American cattle ranchers exposed to a screwworm crisis that took decades to solve. The federal eradication program worked brilliantly for over 50 years — keeping a devastating parasite out of U.S. farms — and gutting that kind of unglamorous but essential government work has real consequences. Musk's crew treated a $300 million pest control program as waste, and now flesh-eating maggots are back in Texas and New Mexico.

MS Now

The screwworm's return isn't a budget story — it's a border security and organized crime story. Illegal cattle trafficking by cartels across Central America is what drove the parasite north at alarming speed, bypassing health screenings entirely. Until the U.S., Mexico and Central American governments crack down on illicit livestock smuggling, no amount of sterile fly releases will permanently solve this crisis.

CNN

Metaculus Prediction

There is a 70% chance that a wild animal will be infected with the New World screwworm in the contiguous US before 2027, according to the Metaculus prediction community.