The Department of Agriculture on Friday announced it was opening several southern ports back up for livestock imports, lifting a ban it had placed on entry points bordering Mexico designed to keep the New World Screwworm at bay.
USDA closed multiple ports last year in an effort to slow the spread of the flesh-eating parasite, which holds the power to devastate the multi-billion dollar ranching industry in Texas and beyond. Through illegal animal movement and other issues, the pest still managed to push its way up through Central America and Mexico, and finally into Texas earlier this year, but officials have managed to keep it in check, with just nine active cases confirmed in the U.S. as of Saturday.
Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins said this week she believed officials have enough of a handle on the situation to begin opening up cattle ports of entry in Douglas, Arizona; Santa Teresa, New Mexico; and Columbus, New Mexico. Douglas will open first on Aug. 24, followed by the others in a “phased reopening” contingent on Mexico’s adherence to the USDA’s “Joint Action Plan” to fight the pest, according to Rollins. Officials said every animal coming through the ports will undergo a full USDA inspection to ensure it is free of NWS.
“The closure of the Southern ports of entry for the last year has been a tough but necessary action to control the spread of NWS in Mexico and protect the American livestock industry,” Rollins said in a statement. “Thanks to the work across the federal government as well as state, local, and industry partners, it is now safe to reopen the Douglas, Arizona, port in 30 days to resume the hundreds-of-years-old movement of cattle.”
“Protecting the United States from NWS and pushing this pest out of Mexico and back to the Darien Gap is a top priority at USDA and has the full attention of the Trump Administration,” she added.
The development comes after Rollins last month defended her decision to close the border to keep the screwworm at bay, while acknowledging it marked “a significant economic challenge to various sectors of our industries in Texas.” Closing the ports posed challenges for the biggest cattle-producing state, forcing the $100 billion U.S. beef industry to contract and helping drive beef prices to record highs as domestic cattle supplies dropped to a 75-year low in part due to the import ban.
“There is no doubt that closing the ports last May caused higher prices in beef,” Rollins said on June 4. “We’re obviously very focused on affordability, but the president agreed when we briefed him that we had to keep our livestock producers as safe as possible with this outbreak moving through Mexico.”
The Biden administration initially closed the border to cattle imports in late 2024 after a screwworm case was detected in southern Mexico. The Trump administration temporarily reopened the border in early 2025, but closed it again in May as the screwworm moved closer to the Texas-Mexico border.
While the parasitic fly holds the power to decimate cattle, often touted as the lifeblood of Texas’s economy, authorities have expressed optimism that the worst scenario has been averted through intense preparation and new tools.
TEXAS PREPARES FOR LOOMING SCREWWORM OUTBREAK: ‘THERE’S NOT A MAGIC BULLET’
Dr. Justin Welsh, the technical services lead for the Merck Animal Health team that developed Exzolt Cattle-CA1, one of the latest screwworm prevention and treatment drugs, previously told the Washington Examiner he would “by no means” characterize the situation as a crisis.
“I think we’re going to be just fine,” he said. “There’s always going to be some that think that your governmental entities should be doing more … [but] we can apply products like Exzolt Cattle-CA1 on the cattle, and prevent, for a number of weeks, the infestation from happening. So, we’ve got a lot of good stuff that’s going to help us keep this thing pushed back.”
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[ H/T Washington Examiner ]
