The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) announced on June 3 that a three-week-old calf in Zavala County, Texas, near the Mexican border, had been infected by the New World screwworm.
Two days later, a second case of the flesh-eating New World screwworm was detected in a one-month-old calf in the same county, according to the department, just 5.6 miles away from the location of the first confirmed case.
South Texas cattlemen and landowners have closely monitored the parasite’s march northward from Panama since 2023.
The Texas cases mark the first outbreak of the flesh-eating parasite since Florida Key deer were infected in 2016. …