This week we introduced you to Blayr Barnard with Barnard Beef Cattle Company and her thoughts on lab-grown meats.
Watch the video here:
She told 25News' Bobby Poitevint there’s something much scarier she wants you to know about — the New World Screwworm fly which is moving closer and closer to Texas. It's a situation she's monitoring and she even took part in one of the first Texas-based classes on the fly.
“I’m worried about my kids. I’m worried about myself. I’m worried about my employees" she said.
As of 2023, an outbreak of New World Screwworm have been identified in Panama and Costa Rica but none in the U.S. according to the CDC.
Since that time, all countries in Central America and Mexico, where NWS was previously controlled, have identified cases in animals and people.
The CDC reports that as of February 10, 2026, these countries have reported more than 152,000 NWS cases in animals and over 1,300 cases in people.
The situation is so serious that Governor Abbott issued a Disaster Declaration in late January and around the same time the CDC issued a health alert network.
The CDC states the fly lays eggs in open wounds or cavities likes ears or the nose in both humans and animals which grow into maggots that can feed on flesh.
This has both the Texas AG community concerned for their livestock and for their own lives and families.
Texas AG Commissioner Sid Miller has been monitoring the situation closely and said the flies are less than 200 miles from the Texas boarder.
He said, “so swarms of these screwworm flies near the Texas border now.”
Miller believes the fly is "hitchhiking" in vehicles, just like any bug does, and is able to migrate through northbound traffic.
He said fly traps ares set up along the border and at Texas cruise ports.
The USDA said it's working with the federal government and has launched "the most aggressive plan to combat the New World Screwworm in the history of our country."
A current tactic includes dropping millions of sterile flies in targeted parts of Mexico in hopes of stopping the fly from reproducing.
Also, committing up to $750 million to build a sterile fly production facility at the Southern Border at Moore Air Base which open just this month.
They are also investing millions of dollars over the next couple of year to fight the fly and are "making bold and impactful progress" with Mexico on improving surveillance, trapping, increasing fly production, and putting in place "movement restrictions in infected areas".
"While this pest didn’t get close to the U.S. overnight, and we won’t defeat it overnight, it will take all of us at the federal and state level working together to combat it" said a USDA spokesperson.
Miller believes more sterile flies could help keep the fly out of the U.S. but he said a fly bait pesticide, specifically designed to fight the New World Screwworm fly, could be a stronger tactic.
He’s talking to officials on both sides of the border to hopefully make it happen saying it’s worked decades ago to eradicate the fly and believes it can work again. Commissioner Miller said he's faced opposition from the USDA about his proposed pesticide.
“Well if we keep doing the same old thing we’re gonna keep getting the same results" Commissioner Miller said.
The USDA discrediting Commissioner Miller's fly bait and trap solutions calling his traps "ineffective" after catching "only one" NWS fly adding their traps in Panama have caught thousands of NWS flies.
The USDA said that sterile flies are the most "tried and true" way to ensure the U.S. is protected from this pest.
"USDA will remain focused on our five-pronged plan to boost sterile fly production and dispersal and work with Mexico to increase real time surveillance in Latin America. Real actions that are delivering results. Never before has the U.S. been this involved on the ground in Mexico. This is a national security issue, and it has the full attention of the Trump administration. USDA looks forward to working with any and all partners who seek to find REAL solutions to defeat the NWS" a USDA spokesperson said via email.
