There's a suspected screwworm case in Southern Texas.
[Flesh-eating screwworm case suspected in South Texas, USDA says](https://www.reuters.com/business/healthcare-pharmaceuticals/unconfirmed-us-case-flesh-eating-screwworm-rattles-cattle-markets-traders-say-2026-06-03/)
Collapse related, diseases once under control are begining to reemerge due to the anti science populist movement growing globally allowing diseases once controlled to take route Gain.
For this who arnt aware Screwworm is a flesh eating parasitic fly.
Screwworms lays their eggs on wounds with the resulting maggots eating tissue. Unlike most flies that eat dead tissue, these fly larvae exclusively eat living tissue often resulting in massive gaping wounds that can become infected quite easily.
Fortunately human cases aren't super common and the parasite primarily impacts cattle. This parasite was eradicated from the US in the 1960s. This was done by releasing sterile male flies. The flies only make once so by releasing sterile flies the female cannot lay viable eggs. The fly species was pushed down to the darien gap, and a border has been maintained there for several decades.
Estimated cost savings for this parasites eradication is about 900 million dollars annually in the United States since the 1960s. [7 min video on parasites biology ](https://youtu.be/AkXfYKi3vMQ?si=nkEPSx6l4zAG3jnu)
Recently the current admin has been trying to blame immigrants for the resurgence of this parasite, but this is just misinformation and it's much more related to cocaine smuggling and illegal cattle trade.
[7 min video debunking misinformation ](https://youtu.be/61wts9flz_8?si=XbXLPF4f7l0guBz4)
There are more than 250 confirmed cases of NWS within Mexico, compared to the total number of cases in animals, which amounts to 27,000. While this is a small number, we are at the beginning of the infestation, and there is still enormous potential for development and an increase in population density throughout Mexico. Production of 200 million sterile fly larvae (SFLs) is projected between the sterile fly production plant in Panama and the one in Mexico by the end of 2026.
Production from the Texas plant, which is projected to reach maximum capacity of 300 million SFLs per week, is expected to begin by the end of 2028.
Not to defend Doge( because I hate Doge it was a complete failure) but I believe that funding for this program was only purposed but not Actually done.(Plus this outbreak initially started during the last few months of Biden term)
They did cut aspects of usda and other government stuff which could indirectly hurt this program.
But the main cause of this is due to illegal drug smuggling.
This has actually been a solid discussion. I dig it. Yall are talking padt each other but yall agree on a number of points. You're saying similar things tbh
First, thanks for throwing out sources. Cited discourse needs to be a more regular thing. Especially here.
Second, the sources you and the others have been providing all sort of point to the same timeline. The outbreak started in '23, in Panama. This is under Biden, yes. Its also multiple hundreds of miles away and in another country. It probably wasnt on the radar at the time. Then by late '24 was being discovered in multiple parts of Mexico, within 200 miles of the border i believe some sources stated. This is due to a number of factors, none of which are the sole one. This isn't only because of storms blowing the larvae and eggs around, or only because of smuggling, as the science and stats support that multiple causes are contributing.
Third, the point that it appears is trying to be made is DOGE certainly isnt helping the issue by gutting federal programs. Now would be the season in which the sterilized males would be being released but there's not enough people or programs to run the normal response to something like this. Considering the flies would have been tagged as a major concern for the US in late '24, the immediate response would have been in '25 and then into '26 but that didn't happen. And that is because of the lack of funding and personnel.
In reality you guys are agreeing, just talking past each other. You're all correct, technically.
As an aside, it's always worth citing your sources when you say something that'll bother folks. Some folks will still downvote, but some will accept some nuance. It's not really about the karma either, but just so folks learn something.
Interesting thread anyways, it's clear the indirect effects of USAID cute shall mostly be a future thing.
Also another president could've mobilised more funding towards enlarging the barrier, but Mexico gets wide fast, so if people are moving cattle like you say then it gets really expensive.
As another aside, I've heard claims that 4chan suffered massively from the USAID cuts, but a quick google yielded nothing, maybe a coincidence with the timing of some hacks.
Yea I agree but they were putting the positive argument forward so it's hard to find a source that says no Doge didn't do ___. They shouldve provided sources. But even the other comments where I showed how it's not really due to climate change but more so drug smuggling got downvoted, when they just used some random persons sub stack as evidence.
And yea I 100% agree this admin is doing a shit job on pretty much every front , this just isn't their fault and it feels like a " they bad " circle jerk without thinking
Here’s a link to the climate change related study cited in that “random person’s substack”
[https://resjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/afe.12046](https://resjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/afe.12046)
Here’s an article discussing how to mitigate the spread.
[https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2405939025000279](https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2405939025000279)
Conclusion
Our study offers valuable insights into the spread of the current screwworm outbreak and provides a basis for informed decision-making to mitigate its impact. By addressing the critical role of animal movement and identifying potential routes of dissemination, this work contributes to the development of more effective control strategies. **However, its success depends on regional collaboration and the establishment of robust systems to monitor and regulate livestock transportation, thereby safeguarding both animal health and economic stability in the Americas.**
DOGE cut those funds making it easier for the drug smugglers to get their infected cattle past the barrier.
**However, its success depends on regional collaboration and the establishment of robust systems to monitor and regulate livestock transportation, thereby safeguarding both animal health and economic stability in the Americas.**
This literally supports what I said, again you are making a straw man argument to force your point and also moving the goalposts in every comment.
I said it was the DOGE cuts and you said it’s the drug smugglers. We can both be right, but the drug smugglers wouldn’t be getting through without the DOGE cuts. I just thought the climate change angle was interesting too. You should read the study and stop being so defensive.
This outbreak started during Biden presidency before Doge existed! So this problem started before Doge existed, how is this doges fault if it started before it even existed!
I've literally read dozens of studies on this. You don't even know the basic time line
This outbreak has been ongoing since the 50s and caused massive losses in the hundreds of millions in Texas in the late 70s or early 80s.
It got past Panama in 2023 and reported in Mexico in 2024. The outbreak originated outside the US and spread through the entirety of Central America before reaching Mexico.
Yes, Biden was Pres at that time, so it's factually accurate to state it occured under his Admin. But I genuinely don't see the importance of which Admin this current resurgence started under since it happened multiple countries away from the US. The more important part is what Govt has done in response and the dismantling of USAID was significant in this regard.
If your going to claim that this outbreak has been going on since the 50s then it's been going on for forever as that's when the eradication started. This too is a massive straw man
It wasn't acknowledged as a pest in the US until the 30's and sterilization method of control was found in the 50's. NWS fly was found in the United States in the late 1800s. Yes, the fly existed before then lmao but somethings not really an "outbreak" unless it's defined as something that needs to be controlled. That first happened in the 30s, amplified again in the 50's which is where Dr. Knipling (or Baumhover in Sanibel? It's been a minute since I've done the history on NWS like since my junior year in college) theorized and then developed the sterile fly method. This temporarily brought it to eradicated status until the late 70s when it hit Texas and Florida from imported livestock.
It's been on our radar for 100+ years and has been actively controlled with more and more expansion every decade since the 50s. I'm saying jts not exactly genuine to claim this outbreak started under the Biden admin when it's been a chronic issue for the Americas.
Seems like It’s mostly due to climate change. Here’s an article from a year ago warning about it.
# Federal Climate Denial and Funding Cuts May Help a Livestock-Killing Pest Make a Comeback
# Climate change could be helping the flesh-eating screwworm fly spread, undoing decades of progress — and the USDA isn’t doing anything about it.
[https://montanaindependent.substack.com/p/federal-climate-denial-and-funding](https://montanaindependent.substack.com/p/federal-climate-denial-and-funding)
Nope not really. There's a barrier about a hundred miles that the worms had to make past. This was done through drug smugglers moving animals across his border and then integrating them into the herds for meat consumption. Climate change may help this worm spread in general but it isn't responsible for this outbreak
https://insightcrime.org/news/screwworm-scare-cattle-trafficking-mexico/
https://www.drovers.com/news/industry/surprising-link-between-cattle-cocaine-and-screwworms-comeback
This article was linked in the drovers article you posted. DOGE is responsible for the USAID cuts.
”By cutting U.S. support for forest protection, Indigenous land rights and alternative economies in Latin America, we’ve created conditions where narco-networks flourish —and the tools to fight old enemies like screwworm have been quietly dismantled.”
# USAID cuts threaten Amazon forest and fuel drug trade concerns
[https://www.context.news/nature/usaid-cuts-threaten-amazon-forest-and-fuel-drug-trade-concerns](https://www.context.news/nature/usaid-cuts-threaten-amazon-forest-and-fuel-drug-trade-concerns)
So glad trump gut the funding to prevent the spread northward of these pests when he took office. Really, it's going to be such a benefit to the citizens of the US to have to deal with these things for the rest of our history.
Since, uh, the thread down there has some weird unverified claim about narcotics trafficking, I'll just leave this here:
https://www.agri-pulse.com/articles/22636-bird-flu-screwworm-monitoring-among-foreign-aid-programs-killed-by-trump
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/sep/07/new-world-screwworm-parasitic-fly
March 2025:
> The 5,300 grants and programs killed in the Trump administration’s cuts to the U.S. Agency of International Development include U.S.-funded animal disease monitoring projects operated by the UN Food and Agriculture Organization.
> A list of terminated programs sent to Congress this week and obtained by Agri-Pulse includes $250 million that went to projects housed under the FAO’s Global Health Security Program.
> Among the GHS projects killed were some dedicated to monitoring and containing avian flu and New World Screwworm in Central America, monitoring avian flu outbreaks in Asia and improving the detection of new strains, and efforts to combat swine fever, according to a person familiar with the situation granted anonymity to speak frankly.
> In total, more than 100 U.S.-funded FAO programs were terminated, worth around $382 million.
> [..]
> The FAO received stop work orders for the programs in late January, which were followed up by termination orders around a month later, a person familiar with the situation said.
> The stop work orders went out just days before the United States ended a temporary suspension of cattle imports from Mexico and as officials were working to implement protocols to prevent the spread of New World Screwworm to U.S. herds.
Tacking on to this:
I work in the turkey industry and we have been impacted by the now-endemic HPAI issue. The cuts to the USAID monitoring programs have been felt heavily by our veterinarian staff. USDA is also noticeably slower to respond in time-sensitive incidents under the Trump admin. Both are directly contributing to the recurring HPAI outbreaks we've had in the country over the last few years.
The consumer may not feel these impacts so heavily right now, but the farmers are hurting.
Appreciate your thoughtful explanation of this matter. With the lack of support for people of your industry it makes me wonder where can we go with this?
My hope is one day soon we will reclaim ourselves and go away from this level of destructiveness we currently operate from.
In my opinion, it's going to take a lot of damage to force the government to enhance biosecurity to where it needs to be. Like $10 a dozen eggs and/or 20% minimum loss in flocks due to an outbreak.
It's a slow moving ball uphill. Easy to lose a massive amount of progress if you cut back efforts even just a little bit.
Rule 1: In addition to enforcing [Reddit's content policy](https://www.redditinc.com/policies/content-policy), we will also remove comments and content that is abusive or predatory in nature. You may attack each other's ideas, not each other.
They're referring to the New World screwworm fly, not the migrants lmfao
That is by definition a pest and something the US will have to deal with if it makes it past the security USDA has at the border and in Central America. Our program to overwhelm the native screwworm fly population with purposefully sterilized versions so they can't successfully reproduce is the only thing preventing spread northward, and Trump slashed funding for it.
Between the self-tapping, torx-style buttplug that is the screw worm, and alpha-GAL, it almost seems like there might be a deity out there, and they might be pissed at Texas.
Kinda feel bad about Suika (Dr. Stone) having to smear anti-screwworm/insect stuff on her for an entire decade, while alone lol.
Americans? You're kind of causing havoc in the world, so you can suit yourselves.
The following submission statement was provided by /u/Not_so_ghetto:
---
Collapse related, diseases once under control are begining to reemerge due to the anti science populist movement growing globally allowing diseases once controlled to take route Gain.
For this who arnt aware Screwworm is a flesh eating parasitic fly.
Screwworms lays their eggs on wounds with the resulting maggots eating tissue. Unlike most flies that eat dead tissue, these fly larvae exclusively eat living tissue often resulting in massive gaping wounds that can become infected quite easily.
Fortunately human cases aren't super common and the parasite primarily impacts cattle. This parasite was eradicated from the US in the 1960s. This was done by releasing sterile male flies. The flies only make once so by releasing sterile flies the female cannot lay viable eggs. The fly species was pushed down to the darien gap, and a border has been maintained there for several decades.
Estimated cost savings for this parasites eradication is about 900 million dollars annually in the United States since the 1960s. [7 min video on parasites biology ](https://youtu.be/AkXfYKi3vMQ?si=nkEPSx6l4zAG3jnu)
Recently the current admin has been trying to blame immigrants for the resurgence of this parasite, but this is just misinformation and it's much more related to cocaine smuggling and illegal cattle trade.
[7 min video debunking misinformation ](https://youtu.be/61wts9flz_8?si=XbXLPF4f7l0guBz4)
---
Please reply to OP's comment here: https://old.reddit.com/r/collapse/comments/1tuo08z/flesheating_screwworm_found_within_31_miles_of_us/opaqxk6/
58 Comments
Beginning_Ad_1723@reddit
ArugulaAcrobatic4018@reddit
Not_so_ghetto@reddit (OP)
Beginning_Ad_1723@reddit
Not_so_ghetto@reddit (OP)
kreiggers@reddit
refusemouth@reddit
crw201@reddit
Not_so_ghetto@reddit (OP)
ComfortMike@reddit
Drone314@reddit
-Thizza-@reddit
Not_so_ghetto@reddit (OP)
Sir_Morgan9@reddit
DisingenuousGuy@reddit
Not_so_ghetto@reddit (OP)
Someones_Dream_Guy@reddit
howdiedoodie66@reddit
Kind-Masterpiece-310@reddit
Not_so_ghetto@reddit (OP)
OatSoyLaMilk@reddit
Caymonki@reddit
Not_so_ghetto@reddit (OP)
BrotherBear0998@reddit
Shoddy-Childhood-511@reddit
Not_so_ghetto@reddit (OP)
Kind-Masterpiece-310@reddit
Not_so_ghetto@reddit (OP)
Kind-Masterpiece-310@reddit
Not_so_ghetto@reddit (OP)
HelpfulSeaMammal@reddit
Not_so_ghetto@reddit (OP)
HelpfulSeaMammal@reddit
Kind-Masterpiece-310@reddit
Not_so_ghetto@reddit (OP)
Kind-Masterpiece-310@reddit
Not_so_ghetto@reddit (OP)
Hobotronacus@reddit
DisingenuousGuy@reddit
HelpfulSeaMammal@reddit
Right-Cause9951@reddit
HelpfulSeaMammal@reddit
Not_so_ghetto@reddit (OP)
obscure_predation@reddit
deleted_by_reddit@reddit
collapse-ModTeam@reddit
HelpfulSeaMammal@reddit
EL_Ohh_Well@reddit
Lo_jak@reddit
Right-Cause9951@reddit
NarrMaster@reddit
Lena-Luthor@reddit
psychotronic_mess@reddit
wwaxwork@reddit
idfkmanusername@reddit
Ree_For_Thee@reddit
StatementBot@reddit
Own_Ad6901@reddit