Second screwworm case confirmed; Rollins in Texas today 

The Agriculture Department’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service confirmed a second case of New World screwworm in Texas on Friday. 

The Canadian Food Inspection Agency announced Friday that it will implement temporary import restrictions on livestock, including horses, from entering Canada from affected areas. Animals that originate from or were present in the state of Texas within 21 days before border crossing will not be accepted, the agency said.

A spokesman for Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, a Republican, told USA Today that “Canada’s broad restriction on Texas livestock is an overreaction that is more political than science-based.”

Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins will attend off-the-record briefings at the new Knipling-Bushland U.S. Livestock Insects Research Laboratory in Kerville, Texas, Sunday and hold a press conference after it to provide updates on the New World screwworm.

Texas Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller in a post on his department’s website last week described USDA’s reponse as slow and bureaucratic, and said it should employ the Screwworm Adult Suppression System, a technology he said was developed by USDA scientists and successfully used during previous eradication campaigns. 

In a post on X, state Rep. Don McLaughlin, a Republican, said that the federal government had failed to take the screwworm threat seriously and that the state of Texas must take charge of the situation.