Governor Greg Abbott and U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins announced a $750 million project to fight the New World screwworm. The project will build a Domestic Sterile Screwworm Production Facility in Edinburg, Texas, to triple the U.S. production of sterile flies and protect the cattle industry, according to the Office of the Texas Governor.
Texas is opening a new facility to produce 300 million sterile flies each week to fight a pest that infects livestock. The facility aims to protect over 2 million jobs in the state's food and agriculture industry and support an economic impact of $867 billion, Governor Abbott said at a press event with congressional and agricultural leaders, as reported by the Office of the Texas Governor.
Governor Abbott said, "We will combat the New World screwworm threat right here in Texas by building a new $750 million facility to breed hundreds of millions of sterile screwworm flies." The facility in Texas aims to stop the spread of the pest. Abbott was joined by Texas Commissioner of Agriculture Sid Miller and Texas A&M Chancellor Glenn Hegar. In June, he created the Texas New World Screwworm Response Team with the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department and the Texas Animal Health Commission. The U.S. Department of Agriculture and Customs and Border Protection are monitoring U.S. entry points to prevent screwworm from entering the country, as stated by the Office of the Texas Governor.
