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The first thing you should know about the New World screwdriver is that it is not a worm; it’s a fly. In the larval stage, it burrows into the flesh of its host, swallowing it from the inside. These worm-like maggots feed on all kinds of warm-blooded animals (the scientific name for flies is Cochliomyia hominivoraxor “man-eater”), but it is a great threat to livestock, and especially to cattle.
The second thing you should know about the New World screwdriver is that it’s back. Last week, 60 years after the United States was declared free of the birds, the Department of Agriculture announced that it had found larvae in a three-week-old calf in rural Zavala County, Texas, not far from the Mexican border. Four more infected animals have been identified across Texas and New Mexico: two calves, a goat and a dog. The American cattle herd already is the smallest it has been since 1951 (in part due to drought), and the value of cattle is increasing. When meat packers pay more for the few animals left, they pass those costs down the supply chain to beef consumers. To meet demand, the industry will need to invest in new calves and build herds. But the White House’s mixed messages on the tax have left farmers at odds, and a resurgence of parasites that eat their animals alive could make matters worse.
Since the 1950s, the Department of Agriculture has been preventing worms with a tried and true strategy. Employees raise swarms of flies themselves, clean with radiation, and then drop them in the air over the affected areas every week. Wild flies mate with sterile ones, slowly decimating the population over time. It’s one of those quietly taxpayer-funded programs that has had the most impact over the past several decades: Before the sterile bug method. Disgusted screwdriver from the southern United States, the insects have been costing cattle farmers tens of millions of dollars every year.
The insect population eventually pushed south through Mexico and beyond Darien Gaproadless rainforest on the border between Panama and Colombia, where it was held until 2022. It then began its march northward, accelerating in 2024, perhaps thanks to illegal cattle trade. The United States for the first time closed its border to Mexican calves in November of that year, reducing the size of the American herd and increasing the price of beef. Sally DeNotta, a professor of veterinary medicine at the University of Florida, told me that because the flies have already arrived in the United States, they are unlikely to be completely eliminated for “months to years.” Hundreds of millions of flies need to be dropped on these screwball clusters every week to have an effect. The USDA began investing in sterile fly production and distribution facilities last year, but right now, the only place in North America capable of mass-producing sterile flies is a Panamanian facility that produces just 100 million per week.
Leaders are already being fingered. Democrats have been blaming DOGE, which reportedly cut funding for caterpillar monitoring programs in Central America last year (though it’s not clear those programs would do much to stop the spread). The Trump administration is to blame the Biden administration. Texas state officials are criticize USDA’s response, and USDA criticizes government officials. USDA Secretary Brooke Rollins to be called Texas agriculture commissioner Sid Miller is “absurd” after suggesting he may not be reporting an outbreak among his own herds. If breeders try to control their own infections by trying to avoid costly quarantines, they may inadvertently encourage the spread of parasites.
Despite high price of cattle, screwworm comes at a time of instability for American ranchers. The decision to raise a calf is a bet on its future value; each animal takes about nine months to breed and about two years to breed. Farmers will only invest if they are sure of what the market will be – a tough question in the policy environment it seems move every few months. The beef industry cheered when Donald Trump announced tough tariffs on beef imports last summer (which benefited ranchers by stifling foreign competition), and stalled after he rolled back the tariffs that hit Brazilian beef. The President quadrupled the meat import quota from Argentina earlier this year; was planning to sign an executive order that would remove more tariffs on imported beef, but he beaten at the last minute. Politics information that Rollins helped stop the order because he didn’t want to upset the ranchers.
Farmers are an important constituency for this White House, and Trump has done it a lot of excessive for American cattlemen since he returned to office. But in trying to reduce the price of beef amid a serious problem of affordability, his administration has created a rift. The increase in the price of cattle has in some ways benefited the breeders, allowing them to negotiate higher prices from the pastures where these animals are fattened before slaughter. That has helped raise the price of minced meat 14 percent since last year. With steak prices on the rise, grill a little restaurants they have struggled to stay open.
Amidst the screws, the industry’s supply and pricing issues have become more pressing. Demand hasn’t abated yet—but many people also can’t tell the difference between an imported rib eye and a homemade one. If the administration’s push to bring back imports ends up driving down grocery store prices, the ranchers’ loss will be the consumer’s gain.
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Today’s news
- The United States Central Command said that it launched new strikes against Iran in response to the country shoot down a US military helicopter yesterday A US official told NBC News that the plane may have been shot down by an Iranian drone; the two workers were rescued and it is said that they are not seriously injured.
- House passed a funding bill for ICE and Customs and Border Protection until the end of President Trump’s term, ending a four-month funding deficit and sending the measure to his desk. The legislation provides nearly $70 billion to corporations and was passed largely along party lines after weeks of GOP wrangling.
- Voters in Maine, South Carolina, Nevada, and North Dakota they started early voting today; the highlight is Maine’s Democratic Senate race, where Graham Platner remains the favorite to win despite recent controversy.
Evening Read
Americans Giving Five Figures to the Coat of Arms
Written by Helen Lewis
Founded in 1484, the College of Arms functions as part of the Royal Household, answering to the king. Its main responsibilities are to determine whether a person has the right to use an existing logo, and to provide new weapons to individuals and organizations. In England, having a logo is still part of public life; you cannot join the Order of the Garter, a a club of people who deserve to be managed by a kingwithout one. For a fee of about $12,000, the college will do the genealogical research and design work needed to give you the armor. But the academy also serves an unlikely group of misfit warriors: Americans.
More From Atlantic
Cultural Breakdown
Watch (or skip). Steven Spielberg makes a plea for mercy and Disclosure Day (now in theaters), an alien film for the post-truth era.
Remember. Marjane Satrapi, author of the best-selling graphic memoir Persepolis, he made rebellion a lifelong projectHillary Chute writes.
Rafaela Jinich contributed to this magazine.
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