1. Texas adds 3 more New World screwworm cases as US total hits 19
Terrell County's case count jumped from one to four in a day. See every Texas screwworm location, the U.S. total and the counties now quarantined.
By Mateo Rosiles
USA Today
June 24, 2026
The New World Screwworm cases in Terrell County, Texas, continue to climb a day after it reported its first case.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture reported three new cases in cattle on Tuesday, June 23, in the Texas-Mexico border county - a day after officials confirmed the first screwworm case in a goat in the county.
This detection brings the Texas screwworm case total to 18 and the U.S. total to 19.
In response to these new cases, the Texas Animal Health Commission - the leading state agency responding to the parasitic fly - placed Terrell and its neighboring county, Peco, under quarantine. So far, eight quarantine zones are impacting 16 counties in central and South Texas.
2. Persistent strains of Campylobacter continue to cause extensively drug-resistant illnesses
CDC
June 23, 2026
Dear partners,
CDC has updated its web notice about REPDBR01, a group of three persisting strains of extensively drug-resistant Campylobacter bacteria that continue to cause illnesses and outbreaks in the United States, with the latest epidemiologic and laboratory information.
In collaboration with federal, state, and local partners, CDC tracks and investigates REPDBR01 and other reoccurring, emerging, or persisting (REP) strains. CDC began investigating these strains in 2017, linking many REPDBR01 infections to pet store puppies and identifying illnesses from as early as 2007. As of June 30, 2025, we have linked 290 illnesses from 28 states to REPDBR01, underscoring the ongoing public health impact of these strains.
CDC publishes and periodically updates REP strain notices* to promote collaboration, stimulate research, and inform prevention efforts. We welcome ideas on how to improve these notices. If you have feedback, please email REPStrains@cdc.gov.
[*See: https://www.cdc.gov/foodborne-outbreaks/php/rep-strains/
Thank you to our federal, state, and local public health partners for making this update possible and continuing to strengthen this work.
Division of Foodborne, Waterborne, and Environmental Diseases (DFWED) and One Health Office (OHO)
National Center for Emerging and Zoonotic Infectious Diseases
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
3. As New World screwworm reaches Texas, Trump officials race to breed more sterile flies [edited]
There is bipartisan agreement that the country is not producing nearly enough sterile flies to combat the flesh-eating parasite, which threatens to wreak havoc on Texas' livestock industry.
By Gabby Birenbaum
Texas Tribune
June 24, 2026
WASHINGTON - At a Senate Agriculture Committee hearing earlier this month, U.S. Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins was resolute - her agency was well-prepared for the New World screwworm, and had kept it at bay for months before the first case was confirmed in a South Texas calf in early June.
As senators asked whether the U.S. Department of Agriculture needed further resources to combat the parasitic fly and if 2025 department cuts had had any impact on the government's capacity to prepare, Rollins maintained that the federal government, from the White House down, was bought in.
"I walked in the Oval Office and I said sir, there is a pretty serious threat to our livestock that's headed our way, and when we need 500 million sterile flies per week, we're only producing 100 million out of Panama, because everyone took their eye off the ball years ago," Rollins said, describing a conversation with President Donald Trump in the spring of 2025. "And unfortunately, because of the border policies, it's coming our way. And he said, 'Well, what do you need?'"
What Rollins got was $1.3 billion in emergency funding to tackle New World screwworm, which she said has allowed USDA to move quickly to expand its capacity to tackle the problem.
But as the flesh-eating parasite moves into Texas - leaving the state's massive livestock industry and the health of thousands of cattle herds hanging in the balance - stakeholders on both sides of the aisle agree that the country is not producing enough sterile flies to combat the problem. Experts project that 500 to 700 million sterile flies are needed weekly to eradicate the pest, and at the moment, the U.S. government is producing about 100 million every seven days out of a facility in Panama.
That capacity is set to expand, but not enough to reach the 500 million threshold. And other technologies officials hope to pair with fly sterilization are not yet ready to be deployed or are the subject of disagreement, leaving the Trump administration and Texas officials without a speedy path to eradicate the threat.
Full text: https://tinyurl.com/mr4ac9hy
4. They Exploded Overnight: East Tennessee Producer Battles Asian Longhorned Tick Outbreak
After a spring of drought followed by heavy rain and high grass, Asian longhorned ticks overwhelmed Travis Mundy's pastures in a matter of days, killing two head and threatening cattle across multiple locations.
By Angie Stump Denton and Haley Bickelhaupt
Drovers.com
June 23, 2026
When East Tennessee cattleman Travis Mundy walked through his pasture on a Saturday in early June, nothing looked out of place. He checked cattle up close, filled mineral and sprayed for flies the way he always does. By Monday, everything had changed. Within 48 hours, a healthy show heifer was dead and her pen mates were crawling with Asian longhorned ticks (ALHTs).
"We drove through them and that's how we found her, just covered in ticks," he recalls. "On Saturday, I had actually laid hands on her and never saw a tick or anything."
Despite aggressive fly and parasite control, an outbreak of ALHTs killed two of Mundy's high-value embryo heifers and left neighboring producers with even greater losses. The fast-spreading tick has turned routine parasite control into a high-stakes battle.
5. The threat of Theilaria: Four State ranchers battle the tick-borne disease
By Benny Reeves
FarmTalkNews.com
June 23, 2026
The Ikeda genotype of Theileria orientalis is a potentially dangerous tick-borne parasite that has spread swiftly now through 60 counties in the state of Missouri.
Primarily transmitted by the Asian longhorned tick, the first confirmed cases in Missouri were detected as early as July 2021, according to the Missouri Department of Agriculture. Various contaminated livestock equipment can also transmit the disease.
Tagging and castration tools or even needles could all transmit Theileria if they come into contact with blood that carries the organism. The organism primarily affects cattle, attacking red blood cells. The blood cells are then damaged and/or removed from the body, culminating in bovine anemia.
The organism is particularly susceptible and harmful to calves and pregnant heifers. According to the University of Missouri Extension, the severity of the disease depends heavily on the severity of the resulting anemia.
6. US senators seek federal action to prevent spread of yellow catfish virus
By Nathan Strout
SeafoodSource.com
June 23, 2026
A handful of United States senators have asked the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) to take action to prevent a deadly overseas virus from infecting domestic catfish populations.
Their primary concern is yellow catfish virus (YcCV), a highly transmissible and deadly pathogen first identified in Chinese aquaculture operations in 2020. The virus exhibited a mortality rate of nearly 90 percent, the senators claim, and can survive the freezing and thawing process.
"These characteristics present a serious biosecurity concern for global aquaculture and warrant immediate attention from U.S. regulators," the lawmakers told U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins in the 11 June letter.
Channel catfish virus (CCV), which is already present in the U.S., is also listed as a concern.