Return of flesh-eating parasite sparks new risk for Donald Trump ahead of midterms

Return of flesh-eating parasite sparks new risk for Donald Trump ahead of midterms

The New World screwworm fly has been confirmed in south Texas for the first time since 1966, threatening the $113 billion US cattle industry and Donald Trump's efforts to lower beef prices

View 3 Images The parasite can kill livestock (Image: AP)

The return of a flesh-eating parasite threatens to disrupt Donald Trump's efforts to lower high beef prices ahead of the midterms in November, as the president already faces a plummeting approval rating.

The New World screwworm fly poses a serious threat to the $113 billion US cattle industry for the first time in over half a century, after an infestation of its flesh-eating larvae was confirmed in south Texas. The infestation was found in a single 3-week-old calf in La Pryor, Texas.

The US Department of Agriculture on Friday announced a second confirmed case found in a one-month-old calf in Zavala County, Texas, about 5.6 miles from the first case.

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New World screwworm poses latest obstacle to GOP's goals

The reemergence of the parasite, which kills livestock, in the US marks the latest obstacle Trump and his Republicans face in their attempts to reduce consumers’ grocery bills and calm anxiety among farmers.

View 3 Images The New World screwworm poses a serious threat to cattle (Image: U.S. Department of Agriculture)

In April, the average price of a pound of ground beef was nearing $7, according to federal data, while a pound of uncooked steak averaged roughly $13. Federal and state authorities had been working to prevent the parasite from reaching Texas, which is home to $17 billion worth of the nation's cattle, making it the industry's top state.

But as the infestation reaches Texas, the flesh-eating larvae threatens to cause $1.8 billion in losses to the state's economy and could harm Republicans in the upcoming midterms.

"Americans run on beef. We notice the price of steaks and ground beef,” Arizona-based GOP strategist Barrett Marson told Politico. “Every time we go to the grocery store, we see that... It’s a significant part of how Americans are getting squeezed on every end.”

“This is something that Texans have been worrying about and have been warning Washington about for nearly two years,” Texas Democratic congresswoman Lizzie Fletcher said of soaring beef prices. “An outbreak today will be devastating to livestock producers and drive up already high costs for beef at the grocery stores that all Americans will see," she added.

New World screwworm detected in Texas for first time in decades

The deadly flies were identified in Mexico in late 2024 after years of being confined to Panama. The fly was a recurring warm-weather plague for cattle ranchers from at least the 1930s through the 1960s, until the US eliminated the pest by breeding sterile male flies and releasing massive numbers of them from aircraft to mate with wild females.

View 3 Images The Texas cases mark the first infestation in decades (Image: Copyright 2026 The Associated Press. All rights reserved)

The USDA confirmed the most recent case was the first in Texas since 1966. The New World screwworm fly in the Western Hemisphere and its Old World counterpart in Africa and Asia are distinctive among flies because their larvae, or maggots, consume live flesh and fluids rather than dead material.

Females deposit their eggs in open wounds and mucous membranes after mating just once in their monthslong lives. Any warm-blooded animal, including wildlife, pets and occasionally even humans, can be infested.

Livestock face heightened risk due to standard handling practices, according to Lee Haines, an associate research professor of biological sciences at the University of Notre Dame.

In previous decades, ranchers experienced losses totaling tens of millions of dollars - likely equivalent to billions in current values.

Outbreak sparks chaos in Mexico's beef sector

Federal and state authorities, along with cattle industry representatives, have been issuing public warnings about the fly's progression through Mexico and its approach toward the US since a case was verified in southern Mexico in November 2024.

The outbreak has severely impacted Mexico's beef sector, especially after US Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins shut down border ports of entry to livestock imports in July 2025 to keep the fly from entering Texas.

Mexico has confirmed thousands of infestations, with Rollins contending that the government there hasn't taken sufficient action to control animal movement within its borders - a claim Mexican authorities have disputed. Rollins has also pointed to former Democratic President Joe Biden's administration, suggesting that inadequate border security has contributed to the flies' spread.

However, Haines identified climate change as a crucial factor in the expansion of this tropical species, which flourishes in warm conditions and previously vanished after cold weather events in the US.

"The cold snaps that once suppressed stray populations in marginal northern regions are becoming rarer and less severe, thus removing a natural biological check on the flies' migration north," she said. " Warmer temperatures are also expanding the geographical band of suitable habitat northward."