According to Brooke Rollins, Secretary of the USDA, the irradiation plant to propagate sterile male New World screwworm Cochliomyia hominivorax (NWS) flies will be located once again on the Moore Airbase with a projected ultimate completion date in November 2027. Initially, the plant will produce 100 million sterile flies each week. The capacity will subsequently be expanded to achieve an output of 300 million sterile flies weekly. USDA produces 100 million sterile flies per week at a facility in Panama for dispersal in affected areas in Mexico. In the short term, USDA will provide $21 million to renovate and convert an existing irradiation facility designed to suppress fruit flies to NWS and to double production. This facility will be operated by the Commission for the Eradication and Prevention of Screwworm (COPEG) and will commence production during the summer of 2026.
The Moore Airbase plant will be designed and erected by the Army Corp of Engineers and will allow the U.S. to be independent of supplies of sterile male screw worm flies from Central America and Mexico.
Although screw worm infestation was suppressed to the point of eradication in the U.S. by 1966 through dispersal of sterile male flies and from North America extending from the Panama Canal to the Southern U.S. border by the late 1990s.
Nature is resilient and infestation emerged in Guatemala in 2024 and spread to Mexico. This represents a threat to U.S. livestock and wildlife. The USDA-ERS estimate that the emergence of NWS in Texas would have cost the beef industry $1.9 billion in 2024.
The reemergence of New World screwworm indicates the need for widescale deployment of sterile male NWS flies. This will require close cooperation with neighboring nations to detect and eradicate the pest. Reintroduction into “cleared” regions is inevitable requiring surveillance and control over movement of livestock. Collectively regulators in Guatemala and Mexico missed the infestation and allowed spread by both movement of cattle and migration of flies