Now that New World Screwworm has entered the US, what now? The Illinois Farm Policy News released a summary of various news agency reports that spelled it out pretty well
This is a version of that story that was edited for style and space.
FIRST DETECTION
Meatingplace’s Chris Moore reported “USDA confirmed the first detection of New World screwworm in the United States in decades after identifying the pest in a three-week-old calf in South Texas, prompting an aggressive federal and state response aimed at containing the outbreak of the parasitic insect.
“The USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service said larvae were found in the calf’s umbilical area in Zavala County, Texas,” Moore reported. “New World screwworm adult females lay fertilized eggs in wounds of warm-blooded animals, where…larvae burrow into living flesh, causing severe injury and economic losses. USDA said no additional detections had been identified as of the announcement.”
“USDA and Texas animal health officials…activated response protocols outlined in the agency’s New World Screwworm Response Playbook. Actions include establishing a 20-kilometer infested zone around the detection site, implementing quarantines and movement controls, increasing surveillance and deploying additional sterile flies to the area,” Moore reported. “USDA said ground release chambers would supplement the approximately 4 million sterile flies already being released aerially each week.”
COULD COST BILLIONS
Reuters’ Cassandra Garrison, Heather Schlitz and Tom Polansek reported “the detection also threatens Texas’ livestock industry, which could face up to $1.8 billion in estimated economic losses if the pest spreads, and represents a setback for US efforts that cost millions of dollars to keep the pest out, experts said.”
“An extensive outbreak could deal a huge economic blow to ranchers in Texas, the biggest cattle-producing state, through livestock deaths, labor costs and medication expenses,” Garrison, Schlitz and Polansek reported.
In an interview with Zia Ag Consultants, Derrell Peel, Extension livestock marketing specialist, said that while the fundamentals of the US cattle and beef markets as a whole won’t be changed by New World Screwworm, dealing with it will be a big cost and management issue for livestock producers.
Every animal will have to be inspected every day, and even the smallest issues dealt with in some way, Peel said.
“Washington has kept its border with Mexico closed to livestock imports for more than a year in an effort to prevent the parasite from reaching US border states, spending millions of dollars to slow its advance through Mexico, investing in sterile fly production facilities, expanding trapping efforts and increasing livestock surveillance,” Reuters reported.
“Mexico has confirmed 27,449 cases of screwworm since November of 2024, with 2,094 cases classified as currently active,” Garrison, Schlitz and Polansek reported. “It has also increased livestock inspections and said that a sterile fly production plant in the country’s south, which the US helped fund, would be operating by the end of June.”
“The last outbreak in the US border states in the 1960s decimated the local wildlife population and caused millions of dollars in damage to ranchers,” Reuters reported.
CATTLE, BEEF RECAP
The USDA reported formula and contract base prices for live FOB steers and heifers this week ranged from $256.34 per cwt to $262.08, compared with last week’s range of $236.71 to $264.00 per cwt. FOB dressed steers and heifers went for $404.15 per cwt to $409.71, compared with $407.61 to $416.65.
The USDA choice cutout Thursday was down $3.20 per cwt at $392.66 while select was down $1.39 at $383.04. The choice/select spread narrowed to $9.62, from $11.43 with 109 loads of fabricated product and 19 loads of trimmings and grinds sold into the spot market.
The USDA-listed the weighted average wholesale price for fresh 90% lean beef as $458.00 per cwt, and 50% beef was $196.20.
The USDA said basis bids for corn from feeders in the Southern Plains were unchanged at $1.20 to $1.40 a bushel over the Jul corn contract, which settled at $4.24 1/2 a bushel, down $0.07.
The CME Feeder Cattle Index for the seven days ended Wednesday was $359.21 per cwt, down $4.93. This compares with Thursday’s Aug contract settlement of $353.73, up $10.75.