Can Biotech Save America From The Screwworm Scourge?

If we build it, they won't come

Decades of absolute victory against the screwworm ended on June 3rd, 2026 when a farmer in Zavala County, Texas (pop. 9,600) notified the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) that he discovered a calf infested by these agricultural pests. An additional 30 cases have since been reported throughout America’s cattle herding heartland across Texas, and now we have reports of infected dogs in neighboring New Mexico. Just like that, America lost our war against an insect that once ravaged the nation. Happy Anniversary, America!

The screwworm is responsible for the disease known as obligate traumatic myiasis, which leads to the consumption of living somatic tissue in warm-blooded hosts. The flesh gets eaten. The wounds smell and hurt. Animals suffer and then meet their demise. Over the decades, this severe pathology has caused the deaths of hundreds of thousands of livestock, including 180,000 cattle during a single localized 1935 Texas outbreak. Until their eradication from the North American continent in mid-century, the screwworm inflicted the equivalent of billions of dollars of losses upon the American agricultural sector.

It’s a big deal that these pests are back, and now there is a race to figure out what to do about them. Luckily, an entirely new tech tree - based on CRISPR - developed since we last battled these pests. The multi-billion dollar is - will it be enough to save us?