Senate Dems urge Rollins to take more screwworm steps, 7 cases reported 

As the Agriculture Department’s Animal and Plant Health Service confirmed a seventh case of New World screwworm and Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins traveled to Texas to publicize the release of sterile flies to combat the parasitic fly, 21 Senate Democrats on Thursday urged Rollins to take more steps to contain it.

The coalition of Senate Democrats led by Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., the ranking member on the Senate Agriculture Committee, wrote Rollins that they are “aware that the USDA has engaged in preliminary efforts to contain this outbreak” but that “the evolving situation demands additional actions to ensure that the United States is adequately responding to the significance of this threat.”

The senators listed several proposed actions including expanding sterile fly production, improving government coordination and outreach and using direct hiring authorities to expand staff.

APHIS has listed all seven cases — six in Texas and one in New Mexico — on its screwworm dashboard.

On Wednesday, Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins said the Biden administration had not done “anything” to stop the northward movement of the screwworm, but Tom Vilsack, the Agriculture secretary under President Biden, defended the Biden administration’s performance.

Cattle trafficking in Central America has quickened the screworm’s northward movement, CNN said in an analysis.

Rollins called the screwworm “terrifying” last year, but this year has called it a “little pest,” CNBC pointed out. 

Texas has widened the quarantine around screwworm cases, USA Today reported. 

Forbes noted that the Trump administration had cut funding for a U.S. Agency for International Development program to monitor and contain New World screwswworm in Central America.