Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins announced a $25 million USDA investment in a new Arizona facility designed to produce and release sterile flies to combat New World screwworm, a parasitic pest that infects livestock and wildlife across the Southwest.
Rollins made the announcement Wednesday during a visit to Arizona alongside Republican Representatives Andy Biggs, Juan Ciscomani, and Eli Crane. The sterile insect technique, a proven biological control method, involves mass-producing male screwworms in a laboratory setting, sterilizing them through irradiation, and then dispersing them across affected regions. When sterile males mate with wild females, they produce no offspring, gradually suppressing the population without chemical pesticides.
New World screwworm poses a significant threat to ranching operations and native wildlife throughout Arizona and the broader Southwest. The parasitic larvae burrow into open wounds on animals, causing infections that can prove fatal if untreated. Outbreaks have increased in recent years, particularly following warm winters that allow the pest to survive in northern regions previously inhospitable to the species.
The facility represents a joint effort between federal agricultural authorities and state officials to implement long-term pest management rather than reactive emergency responses. Arizona's agricultural sector, particularly its cattle ranching industry, stands to benefit from reduced disease pressure and lower treatment costs for infected livestock.
The project aligns with broader USDA initiatives to strengthen domestic agricultural resilience against emerging pest threats. Similar sterile fly programs have successfully controlled screwworm populations in other regions, including parts of the Panama Canal Zone and Mexico, demonstrating the technique's effectiveness at scale.
The Arizona facility's establishment reflects bipartisan support for agricultural infrastructure investment in Republican-held districts. The announcement builds on existing USDA programs targeting screwworm and other transboundary animal diseases that threaten U.S. livestock productivity and