KERRVILLE, Texas (AP/KCRG) – A team from Iowa has been sent to Texas to help combat the spread of a pest that is threatening to devastate the U.S. cattle industry.

Three more cases of the New World screwworm have been confirmed, including one outside the main cluster in Texas, the U.S. Department of Agriculture announced Monday.

During a news conference, USDA Secretary Brooke Rollins said a team from the National Veterinary Services Lab in Ames has been sent to Texas to monitor for cases. The lab is a key facility for animal disease testing and has been conducting tests in Ames but Rollins said the team could be more efficient and test samples quicker by being on location in Texas.

The screwworm is actually a fly larva that eats living flesh instead of dead material. Females lay their eggs in open wounds of warm-blooded animals like cattle, but wildlife, pets and occasionally even humans can be infested. The government has a program to breed sterile male flies and drop swarms of them from planes to mate with wild females, which kept screwworm contained at the southern end of Panama for decades.

So far, there are five confirmed cases: three calves and a goat in Texas and a dog from neighboring Lea County, New Mexico. The dog, which the USDA initially reported as a Texas case, lives in New Mexico and was reclassified as the first in that state. The animal’s travel history is being investigated.

The first two screwworm cases were discovered last week in calves a few miles apart in south Texas. A case was announced Monday in a calf in La Salle County, southwest of San Antonio, and in a goat in Gillespie County, west of Austin.

Scientists expect new cases could pop up in the coming days and weeks, but it doesn’t mean screwworm is spreading rapidly, said Edward Burgess, a University of Florida entomologist who studies the fly.

“When that first case is seen, everyone is being vigilant and their eyes are on it more intensely,” Burgess said. “And when you are looking for something, you are more likely to see it.”

The USDA and the U.S. cattle industry have been racing to prevent an infestation since screwworm was detected in Mexico late in 2024. Screwworm was eliminated in the U.S. in the 1960s, and gets its name from the maggots’ habit of burrowing — or screwing — into a wound, according to the USDA.

So far, its reappearance hasn’t greatly affected beef prices, which are already near record levels because there are fewer cows in the U.S. Although the parasite attacks live cattle, it does not infest meat or fruit. There are also a dozen government-approved medications to treat livestock.

Canada temporarily stopped importing cattle, horses or other livestock from Texas on Friday. The parasites prefer humid areas where temperatures are at least 77 F (25 C), making them more of a summer problem up north.

Burgess said the long-term solution — breeding sterile male flies — is months away. Since wild female flies mate just once, if that encounter is with a sterile male, outbreaks can eventually be halted as the flies die out.

The USDA is working to both increase sterile fly production in plants outside the U.S. and build a massive fly factory in Texas.

The goal is to have enough sterile flies to stop the pests from returning in 2027 after the winter kills off most of them, USDA Secretary Brooke Rollins said at a news conference at the U.S. Livestock Insects Research Laboratory in Kerrville, Texas. She said building the plants is a top government priority.

Scientists are also working on ways to sterilize only male flies to make the program even more effective.

Texas officials encouraged ranchers to keep a close eye on their herds and other wildlife and report anything suspicious to a hotline open 24 hours a day. They also established a website and map to post cases as they are reported.

“This is a highly treatable condition if you act on it immediately,” Republican Gov. Greg Abbott said.

However, Texas Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller — who lost the Republican primary to a candidate backed by Abbott — said the federal response will take too long and risks crippling the cattle industry.

Instead, he says a poison bait could eliminate the screwworm problem in a few months, even if USDA and other experts say the bait hasn’t been proven effective and could poison other flies, animals and even humans.

“What the hell is a good fly?” Miller said in an interview.

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Associated Press writer Scott McFetridge in Des Moines, Iowa, contributed to this report.

The Oklahoma Sooners are heading back to Omaha for the College World Series for the first time since 2022 after OU swept Kansas in the super regionals. Oklahoma outscored the Jayhawks 21-3 in the two games that took three days to play due to a rain delay on Sunday.

The Sooners head to Omaha as one of the hottest teams in college baseball after knocking off Georgia Tech in the regionals and sweeping Kansas to punch their ticket to Omaha.

Oklahoma hit seven home runs in the two games against Kansas, and on Sunday and Monday, the Sooners pitching staff limited the Jayhawks lineup to just four runs.

The Sooners are one of five SEC teams heading to Omaha, joining Alabama, Texas, Ole Miss, and Georgia. The Sooners will open College World Series play against Alabama on Saturday. But before we get to that, here’s how social media reacted to the Sooners series clinching win.

FLINT, Mich. – On June 8, 1953, disaster struck the north side of Flint and the northern suburb of Beecher when the Flint-Beecher tornado, Michigan’s worst natural disaster in terms of deaths and injuries, tore through the area.

The Flint-Beecher tornado remains the only tornado to strike Southeast Lower Michigan rated F5 on the Fujita scale.

According to the National Weather Service, an F5 tornado produces “incredible damage,” with winds estimated between 261 and 318 mph — powerful enough to level strong frame houses, hurl automobile-sized debris more than 100 meters and debark trees.

The scale of the storm was staggering. At 800 yards wide, the tornado didn’t just destroy homes — it erased entire blocks, entire neighborhoods, entire chapters of people’s lives in the span of minutes. Winds are believed to have exceeded 200 mph.

The tornado traveled 27 miles at approximately 35 mph, killing 116 people and injuring 844 others in its path.

For those in its way, there was little warning and almost nowhere to go.

It stands as the deadliest natural disaster in Michigan history and the 10th deadliest in United States history.

The aftermath

So many people were killed that the National Guard Armory and other buildings were temporarily converted into morgues. More than 100 people — families and friends of victims — waited outside in the rain for hours before they could enter to identify the bodies.

State Police Captain James Berardo warned the people outside that the tornado had horribly battered some victims and that the scene inside would be gruesome.

The Flint-Beecher tornado claimed lives ranging from as young as 5 months to as old as 80.

Of the 116 killed, 55 were under 20 years old — and five of those were less than a year old. Of the 844 injured, the last two survivors to be hospitalized were not discharged until five months after the tornado.

At least 20 families reported losing more than one member. The Gensel and Gatica families each lost five people.

Community response

In the wake of the disaster, state troopers, the National Guard and the Red Cross quickly mobilized to assist. Within 12 hours of the tornado, they provided first aid, food and clothing to survivors.

The National Weather Service noted in their Beecher 50th Anniversary Commemoration that the Flint-Beecher Tornado was one of eight tornadoes that occurred that evening across the eastern portion of the Lower Peninsula, resulting in an additional nine deaths and 52 injuries.

The tornado destroyed nearly 340 homes, with 107 sustaining major damage and 153 experiencing minor damage. An additional 50 businesses and other buildings were damaged, totaling an estimated $19 million — nearly a quarter of a billion dollars in today’s money.

Rebuilding the community

Beecher was able to rebuild thanks to the broader Flint community, which rallied around a “Red Feather” campaign to gather relief and rebuilding funds. Combined with Red Cross support, the effort helped the community get back on its feet.

In the late summer of 1953, a community-supported “Builder Bees” project brought volunteers together to help rebuild homes lost in the tornado.