In Focus delivers deeper coverage of the political, cultural, and ideological issues shaping America. Published daily by senior writers and experts, these in-depth pieces go beyond the headlines to give readers the full picture. You can find our full list of In Focus pieces here.The New World screwworm’s reappearance in the United States has officials scrambling to explain the parasite’s arrival, decades after it was declared eradicated from the country. Authorities are bickering about the cause of the spread, amid a “whole-of-government” approach dedicated to containing the insect and keeping it from impacting the multibillion-dollar livestock industry in Texas and beyond. Amid the debate, there’s a running thread of millions of dollars spent to build sterile fly production factories that have eradicated and contained the pest in the past, only to have them closed, and then resurrected again for new outbreaks.
In the latest flare-up, the Trump administration has blamed the Biden administration’s immigration policies for driving the insect northward through the Darien Gap, out of its traditional habitat in South America. Democrats say the Trump administration bears some blame for temporarily reversing a Biden-era Agriculture Department decision to close southern ports of entry to live cattle imports to prevent the spread of screwworm into the U.S. last year. The Department of Government Efficiency’s workforce cuts last year to the USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, as well as programs targeting the screwworm, left the country vulnerable to the latest outbreak, Democrats ranging from Sen. Raphael Warnock (D-GA) to Rep. Shri Thanedar (D-MI) argue.
