1. Texas sterile fly facility set for spring opening
By Sarah Davis
TheHill.com
August 11, 2026
A sterile fly facility is set to open in Texas this spring amid a New World Screwworm (NWS) outbreak that has affected two states, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) announced Monday [Aug. 10].
The USDA social media account dedicated to providing updates on the federal response to the NWS spread said the facility will open seven months ahead of schedule at the Moore Air Base in Edinburg, Texas.
Rollins told lawmakers in June that construction of this facility broke ground in April and was "moving at Trump [administration] speed" to be "operational by the end of next year."
Once the plant hits full capacity, which is expected by late 2028, it will aim to produce 300 million sterile flies per week. The sterile insect technique (SIT) is a proven, natural way to counteract screwworm outbreaks.
2. USDA DHS Join Forces to Protect Livestock
USDA Press Release
August 11,2026
Washington, D.C. - Yesterday, U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Brooke L. Rollins hosted an event at Moore Air Base in Texas to announce new Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS), reinforcing a whole-of-government commitment to protect the nation's food, agriculture, and veterinary systems from emerging threats like New World screwworm (NWS). U.S. Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Rodney Scott represented U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Markwayne Mullin at the event.
"The United States has the strongest food and agriculture system in the world," said Secretary Rollins. "This new agreement builds upon the National Farm Security Action Plan in partnership with DHS. The MOU further aligns our animal health mission with DHS's border, security, and inspection authorities, so we are better positioned to detect, assess, and respond to agricultural threats like New World screwworm. Together, we can move faster and more effectively to better support and protect America's animals, people, and agricultural resources."
"Safeguarding American agriculture from threats abroad starts at our border," said Secretary of Homeland Security Markwayne Mullin. "Proud to work alongside Secretary Rollins as we fight to protect our farmers, ranchers, and livestock."
Full text with MOU synopsis:
https://www.usda.gov/about-usda/news/press-releases/2026/08/11/secretary-rollins-visits-moore-air-base-announce-new-memorandum-understanding-between-usda-and-dhs
3. Early-Life Dairy Calf Stress Can Impact Long-Term Herd Success
By Mariah Squire
Successful Farming
August 12, 2026
All animals experience stress. On a dairy farm, calf care is sometimes secondary to caring for animals in other stages, especially the lactating herd. But it's important to ensure calves get the care that sets them up for long-term success.
"Calves are a critical group to focus on because they're the future of the herd," said veterinarian Jen Roberts, senior associate director, cattle professional services, with Boehringer Ingelheim. "We need to make sure that they get off to a strong start so that two years from now, when they're entering the lactating herd, they have the best chance at success."
All calf care inevitably involves managing and mitigating stress on several levels.
Some stress is unavoidable. Cold stress in winter, heat stress in summer, transportation stress, and routine management stress are a few types. According to Roberts, a large amount of stress early in a calf's life can create health challenges.
Why? Stress affects immune function. "Anything that causes stress for an animal is going to elevate stress hormones, and stress hormones have an immune-suppressive effect," Roberts said.
Full text: https://www.agriculture.com/early-life-dairy-calf-stress-can-impact-long-term-herd-success-12038876
Potomac Horse Fever Confirmed in Tennessee
EDCC Health Watch
TheHorse.com
August 12, 2026
One horse in Knox County, Tennessee, has tested positive for Potomac horse fever (PHF), according to the attending veterinarian. The horse is at a veterinary hospital.
Full text: https://thehorse.com/1146489/potomac-horse-fever-confirmed-in-tennessee-2/
Wisconsin Quarter Horse Tests Positive for Equine Influenza
EDCC Health Watch
Equus Magazine
August 12, 2026
On Aug. 3, a 10-year-old Quarter Horse gelding in Outagamie County, Wisconsin, tested positive for equine influenza after developing a fever, nasal discharge, and cough. He is reportedly vaccinated. Two additional horses are suspected to be positive.
5. Immune 'reprogramming' could protect poultry from disease
By exposing macrophages to sodium butyrate, researchers trained chickens' natural defenses to fight future infections.
Univ. of Bristol
Feedstuffs
August 12, 2026
A naturally occurring gut molecule that could strengthen chickens' immune response against a wide range of bacterial infections has been identified by University of Bristol-led research. This new breakthrough, published Aug. 12 in The Journal of Immunology, offers a major step forward in sustainable farming and the global fight against antibiotic resistance.
It has long been a challenge in agriculture to protect livestock from widespread pathogens like salmonella and avian pathogenic Escherichia coli (APEC) without relying heavily on antibiotics. Overuse of these drugs in farming contributes to the global crisis of antimicrobial resistance, which threatens both animal and human medicine.
Working with primary chicken immune cells and cell lines, the research team traced how sodium butyrate, a short-chain fatty acid naturally produced by gut bacteria, acts as an immune system programmer. By exposing developing immune cells called macrophages to this compound, the researchers successfully trained the chickens' natural immune defenses to fight future infections.
Full text: https://www.feedstuffs.com/poultry/immune-reprogramming-could-protect-poultry-from-disease
6. Newly discovered virus is sickening cattle in Western Europe
The pathogen, which reduces milk production, is the latest midge-transmitted virus affecting ruminants to reach the continent
By Kai Kupferschmidt
Science.org
August 11, 2026
When farmers in Switzerland and southern Germany in June noticed their cows were getting sluggish, suffered from diarrhea, and produced less milk than normal, many at first assumed it might be an effect of the scorching heat wave holding Europe in its grip.
But as more and more farms were affected, including some in eastern France, researchers started to look for another cause. After standard tests ruled out some likely suspects, teams from the Friedrich Loeffler Institute (FLI) in Germany and France's National Research Institute for Agriculture, Food and Environment independently found the real culprit: a virus never seen in Europe before and likely transmitted by midges, the latest of several such viruses to arrive in Europe the past 5 years.
The virus belongs to a large group called orthobunyaviruses, which cause many livestock diseases and a few human ones, including Oropouche fever. It's most closely related to-and shares more than 90% of its genome with-the Shamonda virus, a pathogen spread by midges that was first isolated from cattle in Nigeria in 1965 and has since been found across Africa, as well as in Japan. "Now we have to work very quickly to try to increase the knowledge of this virus and develop new tools to study what is going on," says Jean-Luc Guerin, a researcher at the National Veterinary School of Toulouse who led the French sequencing effort. Because the virus does not match any strain of Shamonda virus in international genomic databases, the researchers are calling it "Shamonda-like" for now. It may end up being classified as a variant of Shamonda.
Full text: https://www.science.org/content/article/newly-discovered-virus-sickening-cattle-western-europe