U.S. Department of Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins said Monday that the U.S. food supply is “not at risk” with the return of the meat-eating screwworm maggot to Texas.
“This is not a virus or a disease. It’s just a small pest, like a larva that lands on a wound in a calf, and we can treat it,” Rollins said in an interview on CNBC’s “Squawk Box.”
“We have boots on the ground… We can fight this off, but we’re going to do everything we can, investing over $1 billion to push this pest back into Mexico and eradicate it, just like we did about 50 years ago,” she later added.
Her comments come just days after the Department of Agriculture confirmed two more cases of screwworm in Texas, one in a calf in La Salle County and one in a dog in Andrews County, bringing the total number of cases to four. The agency said further information about the new cases will be released, but initial reports indicate the dog was recently in Mexico.
The USDA confirmed the first positive case of screwworm in Texas on Wednesday. This is the first screwworm incident in the United States since the 1960s.
The New World screwfly is a parasitic fly whose larvae burrow into the flesh of living warm-blooded animals and cause painful wounds that can be life-threatening if untreated. This pest poses a danger to livestock, wildlife, pets, and rarely humans.
Cows roam through a field on June 6, 2026 in La Prayer, Texas. The first case of the New World pillworm parasite since it was eradicated from the country in 1966 was reported Wednesday by the U.S. Department of Agriculture in La Prayer, Zavala County.
Joel Angel Juarez | Getty Images
According to the USDA, screwworms do not infect meat, fruits, vegetables, or other foods. Still, the incident marks a troubling resurgence of the parasite, raising questions about how to prevent its further spread into the United States and reintroducing a threat the country has spent decades working to eliminate.
Texas agriculture officials, including Secretary Sid Miller, have criticized the USDA for its slow response to stopping the New World screwworm from crossing the border. In response, Rollins said Miller’s recent comments are “disturbing, disruptive and extremely detrimental to what we are trying to accomplish.”
“He knows we’re going at Trump’s speed,” Rollins said.
He said the United States will rely on the same strategy it has used since the late 1950s, and part of that includes releasing sterile insects to control pest populations. He said the United States was already dropping about 10 million sterile flies a week into affected areas from the air and the ground.
“We’ve won before, we have to win again,” Rollins said.
