The New World Screwworm whose larvae burrow into the living flesh of animals is spreading across the Southwest, and Congressman Greg Stanton (D-AZ) wants the federal government to move fast before it reaches Arizona's ranches and feedlots.
Stanton sent a letter to U.S. Department of Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins urging immediate steps to contain the New World Screwworm, a pest that was eradicated from the United States decades ago through a sustained sterile fly release program, but has now returned.
The fly's larvae infest open wounds in living animals, causing severe tissue damage and death if left untreated.
According to federal data updated Tuesday by the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, 19 domestic animal cases have now been confirmed across two states since the first detection on June 3.
The cases are concentrated in Texas, with affected animals including cattle, goats, and sheep in counties such as Terrell, Edwards, and Crockett. Sixteen of those cases remain active.
For Stanton, the geographic trajectory is alarming, with confirmed cases already within 500 miles of Arizona's border; he argues the state's ranching communities are directly in the path of a potential outbreak.
What The Letter is Requesting
The focal goal of his letter is a specific request: reopen the sterile fly dispersal facility that once operated at Douglas Municipal Airport in southern Arizona.
For roughly two decades, that USDA-operated site produced sterile flies at scale and helped maintain a protective barrier along the U.S.-Mexico border. Stanton is asking the department to assess the federal investment needed to bring it back online, and he noted that Congress recently approved additional funding for screwworm eradication that he believes should be directed there.
Stanton also called on the USDA to continue supporting diagnostic work at the University of Arizona's College of Veterinary Medicine, one of only three national laboratories currently screening for the pest, and to expand federal inspection staff and international monitoring programs in Central America, where screwworm populations persist.
"The reemergence of NWS is a national security emergency," Stanton wrote, "that requires our utmost attention and a rapid, strategic surge of resources to the Southwest."
