Rollins, Abbott open sterile fly facility in Texas   

Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins and Texas Gov. Greg Abbott on Monday celebrated the completion of a U.S.-based sterile fly dispersal facility in Edinburg, Texas.

The facility expands USDA’s ability to disperse sterile flies along the border and into the United States to fight the new world screwworm if necessary, USDA said.

“The Trump administration continues to bring the full force of the federal government to fight new world screwworm,” Rollins said in a news release.

“This sterile fly dispersal facility was a high priority project, and our team delivered it in record time. This new facility is a monumental achievement for our domestic preparedness efforts, but we are also diligently working to stop the spread of screwworm in Mexico, conduct extensive trapping and surveillance along the border, increase U.S. response capacity, and encourage innovative solutions.

“We will never stop fighting to protect American agriculture. USDA, through a whole-of-government approach, will continue to hold Mexico accountable to mitigating the spread of this dangerous pest,” Rollins said.

“America is going to take care of ourselves, including dealing with the approach of screwworm as it gets closer to our border,” said Abbott.

“We put together the resources necessary for Texas to provide a Texas-size response to this. We thank Secretary Rollins and President Trump for stepping forward to provide the stop gap effort essential to protecting our ranchers and our wildlife.”

“The value of equipping the U.S. to combat the threat of new world screwworm cannot be overstated,” Stephen Diebel, Texas & Southwestern Cattle Raisers Association first vice president, said in a news release.

“As Texans and cattle producers, we celebrate the opening of the sterile fly dispersal facility at Moore Airfield Base, strengthening our nation’s ability to protect our cattle herd health, food security and economy which would suffer from any incursion of new world screwworm.”