Dog is infected by deadly plague in the United States, agency says

Image of a screwworm fly (Cochliomyia hominivorax).
US Department of Agriculture.
According to the Associated Press, two more cases of the screwworm fly were confirmed in Texas, United States. This demonstrates the difficulty of stopping the spread of a pest that could potentially devastate the country's livestock industry, the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) announced this Monday (8).
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The screwworm fly is, in fact, a larva that feeds on living tissue instead of dead matter. Females lay their eggs in open wounds of any warm-blooded animal, such as cattle, but wild animals, pets and occasionally even humans can be infested.
The USDA said the new cases were found in a calf and a dog hundreds of miles apart in La Salle and Andrews counties in Texas.
This brings the total number of confirmed cases to four. The screwworm fly was first identified in a three-week-old calf in early June, and a second case was found just a few miles away, also in a young calf.
"While we address these occurrences that require immediate attention and continue to collect samples from suspected cases, we are simultaneously working to completely eradicate the pest," Dudley Hoskins, deputy secretary for marketing and regulation at the USDA, said in a statement.
Before it is eliminated in the United States In the 1960s, the fly was an annual warm-weather problem for ranchers.
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The USDA and the U.S. livestock industry have been preparing for an infestation since the pest was detected in Mexico in late 2024, after decades of being contained as far south as Panama.
The government combats the fly by breeding sterile males, which then mate with wild females, which they mate only once during their lifetime, which lasts several months.
By mating with sterile males, females no longer produce flies and outbreaks can eventually be stopped.
The USDA has announced plans to increase production of sterile flies at facilities outside the United States while it builds a fly factory in Texas.
U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins will receive an update on the infestation Monday afternoon at U.S. Livestock Insects Research Laboratory in Kerville, Texas.

Source: G1