USDA to build Texas facility to fight flesh

By Tom Polansek and Leah Douglas

(Reuters) -The U.S. Department of Agriculture will spend up to $750 million to build a sterile fly production facility in Texas to fight the flesh-eating livestock pest New World screwworm, USDA Secretary Brooke Rollins said on Friday.

The plan signals increasing worries about the risk of screwworm, a parasitic fly that eats livestock and wildlife alive, to infest U.S. cattle after the pest has moved north in Mexico toward the U.S. border.

An outbreak could further elevate record-high U.S. beef prices by keeping more animals out of the U.S. cattle supply.

In Texas, the largest U.S. cattle-producing state, ranchers are anticipating the return of screwworms for the first time in decades. The United States eliminated screwworms in the 20th century by flyin