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A blowfly has been found on a calf in Texas.

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Texas Governor Greg Abbott (R-TX) and Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins. | Photo: Jay Janner/Austin American-Statesman via Getty Images

What's happened

The U.S. Department of Agriculture announced Wednesday evening that a calf in South Texas has been confirmed infected with the deadly flesh-eating parasite, the blowfly. This marks the first time the parasite has been detected in cattle in the U.S. since 1966.

Who said what?

Blowflies are "parasitic flies whose females lay eggs in open wounds" on "any warm-blooded animal," which hatch into hundreds of larvae that "use their sharp mouthparts to gnaw through living flesh, eventually killing the host if left untreated," Reuters reports. Human cases are "rare," and the fly "poses no food safety risk.".

The US has been bracing for the parasite's arrival, closing its southern border to livestock since the northward spread of blowflies through Mexico was discovered in 2024. If more cases of blowfly infestations are discovered in the US beyond this one, it "could deal a devastating blow to the American cattle industry," The New York Times reported. According to The Wall Street Journal, the country's cattle herd "has already reached its lowest level since the 1950s.".

What's next?

The U.S. Department of Agriculture is "taking immediate action" to "contain" and "eradicate this case," Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins said, including creating a 12.4-mile-radius "infestation" quarantine zone around the calf, increasing monitoring, and releasing millions of sterile New World parasitic flies to reduce the population.

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