00:00U.S. cattle herd has shrunk to its lowest level in 75 years while a new outbreak of the New
00:05World
00:05Screwworm is raising fresh concerns about supply disruptions. So remember last year when we reported
00:11that in Mexico where the screwworm has been eradicated since the early 1990s more than 950
00:17cases have been reported since the start of this year. Well that situation has gotten a whole lot
00:22worse. USDA confirmed the presence of a New World Screwworm case within the United States
00:27here in Texas. For the first time in about 50 years the New World Screwworm is back in U.S.
00:33livestock. Even though it's called a screwworm it's actually a parasitic fly. The New World
00:38Screwworm is not a worm. It's a parasitic fly whose larvae feed on animals particularly livestock
00:44wildlife and pets. The first case was confirmed in the U.S. at the start of June in a calf
00:51in Texas
00:52and the second just a few miles away days later. The return of the screwworm comes at a time when
00:57U.S. beef prices are already at record highs. Although it has no impact on food safety it
01:03does add uncertainty for ranchers as the parasite threatens the rebuilding of an already dwindling
01:09U.S. cattle herd keeping beef prices higher for longer. It can affect any warm-blooded animal but
01:16so far has spread most among cattle leaving the industry on edge as actually wiping the pest from
01:21the country could take years. We prevented and eradicated this pest before we can do it again.
01:27In the 1950s the USDA released swarms of sterile male flies to mate with female flies in the wild
01:33herbing reproduction. It worked and the U.S. spent decades using that method to push screwworm flies
01:39out of the country and then all the way down to Panama. And the releasing of sterile male flies in
01:44Panama
01:44has continued for decades. So why did it stop working? Well it didn't. Experts say the movement
01:51of people and livestock likely brought the flies past that barrier in Panama allowing for its spread
01:58across Central America. The USDA's workforce was affected by President Donald Trump and Elon Musk's
02:04efforts to streamline federal agencies. The turmoil has opened the agency's response to the screwworm
02:10up to criticism though any direct impacts are still unclear. People that are back and saying that
02:16Doge has basically caused this could not be further from the truth. Unsurprisingly producing sterile flies
02:22at the scale needed now requires time and of course large amounts of money. Currently the U.S. and its
02:28partners are making those investments but are less than halfway there. A plant in Texas should produce
02:33about 100 million sterile flies a week and at full capacity 300 million flies a week. But the facility
02:40only just broke ground and isn't slated to come online until late 2027. So until then all we can
02:46really do is hope it doesn't get much worse.
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