The U.S. food supply is “not at risk” from the return of the carnivorous meat parasite to Texas, U.S. Department of Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins said Monday.
“It’s not a virus, it’s not a disease, it’s just a little parasite, a larva that lands in a calf’s wound, for example, and can be treated,” Rollins said in an interview on CNBC’s “Squawk Box.”
“We have troops on the ground…we will be able to beat this back, but we will do everything we can, investing over a billion dollars to push this pest back into Mexico and then eradicate it, as we did about 50 years ago,” she later added.
His comments came shortly before the USDA confirmed two additional cases of dung worms in Texas — one in a calf in La Salle County and another in a dog in Andrews County — bringing the total number of cases to four. The agency said more information would be released on the new cases, but initial reports indicate the dog was recently in Mexico.
The USDA confirmed the first positive case of the butcher worm in Texas on Wednesday. The cases of dung worms are the first in the United States since the 1960s.
The New World screwworm is a parasitic fly whose larvae burrow into the flesh of living, warm-blooded animals, causing painful wounds that can be life-threatening without treatment. This pest poses a risk to livestock, wildlife, pets, and in rare cases, humans.
Cattle roam a field June 6, 2026 in La Pryor, Texas. The first case of the New World butcher worm parasite since its eradication from the country in 1966 was reported Wednesday in La Pryor, Zavala County, by the United States Department of Agriculture.
Joel Ángel Juarez | Getty Images
Dungworms do not infest meat, fruits, vegetables or other food products, according to the USDA. Still, the cases mark a worrying return of the parasite and raise questions about how to stop it from spreading further in the United States, reviving a threat that the country has spent decades eliminating.
Texas agriculture officials, including Commissioner Sid Miller, have criticized the USDA for its slow response, which has failed to stop the New World butcherworm from crossing the border. In response, Rollins said Miller’s recent comments are “disturbing and disruptive and very detrimental to what we’re trying to achieve.”
“He knows we’ve moved at Trump’s speed,” Rollins said.
She said the United States would rely on the same model it used starting in the late 1950s, part of which involves releasing sterile insects to suppress the pest’s population. She said the United States was already dropping about 10 million sterile flies per week on the affected area, both from the air and from the ground.
“We beat him before, we have to beat him again,” Rollins said.