USDA inspectors expanded quarantine perimeters Saturday in southern Texas to block screwworm flies from spreading into major cattle-producing counties.
Checkpoints require veterinary certificates before livestock trailers cross zone boundaries, slowing transport to feedlots and slaughter plants.
Entomologists deploy sterile insect techniques and targeted spraying when larvae are detected in wound inspections.
Ranch associations petitioned for compensation when animals must be destroyed to prevent wider infestation.
Weather models show humid conditions favorable to fly reproduction, complicating control during early summer.
Officials coordinate with Mexican counterparts because cross-border cattle movements historically reintroduced parasites after prior eradication campaigns.
Veterinary schools in Texas A&M’s extension network deployed mobile wound-treatment trailers to ranches lacking nearby large-animal clinics.
Retail grocers said they had not yet raised beef prices but would monitor supply if quarantine zones expand toward major feedlot counties next week.
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Sources:
https://apnews.com/