Secretary Rollins New World Screwworm Press Conference Summary 6/8/26

Secretary Brooke Rollins

• Current Reported Cases
  • 1^st Case: Calf in Zavala county. Calf was treated and is recovering
  • 2^nd Case: Calf in Zavala county, TX
  • 3^rd Case: Calf in La Salle County, TX
  • 4^th Case: Dog in Lea County, NM – Transported from Mexico
  • 5^th Case: Goat in Gillespie County, TX

• History Lesson:
  • Info about fly. (Skip this)
  • 2016 Florida outbreak. Successfully radiated
  • 2022 Panama barrier was breached.

• Current Fly Status:
  • Fly facility in Metapa, Mexico should begin producing flies this month (June 2026)
  • Moore Facility – Expected to produce hundreds of millions of flies by mid next year.
  • Started Ground release sterile fly release.

• Next Gen Tools:
  • Private sector investment – 226 applications
  • Innovations should be coming out in the next few weeks.
  • Kerrville research facility – developed a novel strain of sterile NWS that doubles production output.
• Other current strategies
  • 8000 traps are currently set across the US-Mexico border.
  • Have examined 59,000 samples from traps and 19,000 wildlife samples since Jan 2025.
  • Training dogs to detect NWS
  • Border riders monitoring the border.
• Infested zone:
  • Movement controls of 20km infested zones at the
• Sterile Fly release in Zavala
  • Confirmation of Zavala county case – That evening they released 4 million sterile flies in Zavala.
• Food safety
  • Confirmed food supply is safe – NWS does not affect our meat. 

Governor Abbot

• Discussed Sterile Fly Technique
• Disaster declaration for all of the counties in Texas
• Said he would make available any and all necessary Texas resources to support the production of NWS in Edinburg.
• Certified inspector program
  • Problem: Inadequate number of inspectors
  • Goal: Increase number of inspectors to help facilitate animal movement.
  • This will allow ranchers and cattlemen to inspect their animals to facilitate animal movement
• Mobile NWS testing
  • Currently in Uvalde to provide faster testing results.
• Report Domestic Animals: TAHC NWC Reporting Hotline
  • Phone: 800-550-8242
• Report Wildlife Animals: TPWD NWC Reporting Hotline
  • Phone: 512-389-4505

Admiral Michael Schmoyer

• Screwworm.gov
• [email protected]
• Ivermectin
  • Investigating widespread use of Ivermectin in feed – No conclusive results yet

Dr Bud Dinges – TAHC

• Discussed their boots on the ground efforts
• Emphasized monitoring and reporting

Alan Cain – TPWD

• Discussed their boots on the ground efforts.
• Emphasized monitoring and reporting

Scott Hutching – Researcher - Entomologist

• “Novo fly” – Novel fly strain. Will allow them to effectively double the production of flies by producing only males. (Currently 50% are males : 50% are females)
• Focusing of developing attractants to attract the female fly and discriminate against other non-target flies.
• Discussed older pesticide and traps – Mentioned they are not usable and registrable (Did not say why.)
• Discussed the models they are using to drop the sterile flies.

John Bellinger – Texas A&M Board of Regents

• Emphasized the need for more sterile flies and his focus on getting more flies and TAMU’s support 

Stephen Diebel - South Wester Cattle Raisers

• Emphasized monitoring and expressed support