{"id":11982,"date":"2026-07-25T22:49:43","date_gmt":"2026-07-25T19:49:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newsfire.gr\/en\/?p=11982"},"modified":"2026-07-25T22:49:43","modified_gmt":"2026-07-25T19:49:43","slug":"usda-reopens-southern-border-cattle-imports-after-outbreak","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newsfire.gr\/en\/usda-reopens-southern-border-cattle-imports-after-outbreak\/","title":{"rendered":"USDA Reopens Southern Border Cattle Imports After Outbreak"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>According to Emily Hallas writing in <em>Washington Examiner<\/em>, the USDA shuttered multiple ports last year in response to the deadly pest&#8217;s northward migration through Central America and Mexico. Despite those preventive measures, illegal animal movement allowed the parasite to breach U.S. borders and reach Texas earlier this year. Federal officials have since contained the outbreak, with only nine active cases confirmed nationwide as of Saturday.<\/p>\n<p>Agriculture Secretary <strong>Brooke Rollins<\/strong> indicated this week that authorities now have sufficient control over the situation to begin a phased reopening of cattle entry points at Douglas, Arizona; Santa Teresa, New Mexico; and Columbus, New Mexico. The Douglas port will reopen first on August 24, with others following based on Mexico&#8217;s compliance with the USDA&#8217;s Joint Action Plan to combat the screwworm.<\/p>\n<div id='gallery-1' class='gallery galleryid-11982 gallery-columns-2 gallery-size-medium'><figure class='gallery-item'>\n\t\t\t<div class='gallery-icon landscape'>\n\t\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"300\" height=\"200\" src=\"https:\/\/newsfire.gr\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/AP26092715358465-300x200.jpg\" class=\"attachment-medium size-medium\" alt=\"\" aria-describedby=\"gallery-1-11979\" srcset=\"https:\/\/newsfire.gr\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/AP26092715358465-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/newsfire.gr\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/AP26092715358465-768x512.jpg 768w, https:\/\/newsfire.gr\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/AP26092715358465.jpg 1024w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<figcaption class='wp-caption-text gallery-caption' id='gallery-1-11979'>\n\t\t\t\tPhoto: washingtonexaminer.com\n\t\t\t\t<\/figcaption><\/figure><figure class='gallery-item'>\n\t\t\t<div class='gallery-icon landscape'>\n\t\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"300\" height=\"200\" src=\"https:\/\/newsfire.gr\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/AP26196580841583-300x200.jpg\" class=\"attachment-medium size-medium\" alt=\"\" aria-describedby=\"gallery-1-11980\" srcset=\"https:\/\/newsfire.gr\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/AP26196580841583-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/newsfire.gr\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/AP26196580841583-768x512.jpg 768w, https:\/\/newsfire.gr\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/AP26196580841583.jpg 1024w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<figcaption class='wp-caption-text gallery-caption' id='gallery-1-11980'>\n\t\t\t\tPhoto: washingtonexaminer.com\n\t\t\t\t<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\n<p>Every animal crossing through the reopened ports will undergo comprehensive USDA inspection to verify it is free of the parasite, officials confirmed.<\/p>\n<p><em>Thanks to the work across the federal government as well as state, local, and industry partners, it is now safe to reopen the Douglas, Arizona, port in 30 days,<\/em> Rollins stated, emphasizing that protecting the United States from the screwworm and pushing it back to the Darien Gap remains a top priority for the Trump administration.<\/p>\n<p>The port closures created substantial economic hardship for the nation&#8217;s largest cattle-producing state. The restrictions forced the $100 billion U.S. beef industry to contract sharply, contributing to record-high beef prices as domestic cattle supplies plummeted to a 75-year low.<\/p>\n<p>Rollins acknowledged last month that shuttering the ports presented significant economic challenges to Texas industries, but defended the decision as necessary to protect American livestock producers. She noted that President Trump agreed with the closure after being briefed on the outbreak&#8217;s progression through Mexico.<\/p>\n<p>The Biden administration initially closed the border to cattle imports in late 2024 following a screwworm detection in southern Mexico. The Trump administration briefly reopened the border in early 2025 but reinstated the closure in May as the parasite advanced toward the Texas-Mexico border.<\/p>\n<p>Despite the screwworm&#8217;s potential to devastate cattle herds\u2014often described as the lifeblood of the Texas economy\u2014authorities have expressed confidence that the worst-case scenario has been avoided through intensive preparation and new pharmaceutical tools.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Dr. Justin Welsh<\/strong>, technical services lead for the Merck Animal Health team that developed Exzolt Cattle-CA1, a recent screwworm prevention and treatment drug, said he would not characterize the situation as a crisis. Welsh explained that products like Exzolt Cattle-CA1 can be applied to cattle to prevent infestation for several weeks, providing effective tools to keep the parasite at bay.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align:right\"><em>With information from <a href=\"https:\/\/washingtonexaminer.com\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Washington Examiner<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The USDA will reopen southern border ports for livestock imports starting August 24 after containing a New World Screwworm outbreak that forced closures and contributed to record beef prices.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":51,"featured_media":11981,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[122],"tags":[4401,10146,3131,4740,10145,1831,278,10144],"nfg_topic":[135],"class_list":["post-11982","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-arizona","tag-cattle-imports","tag-mexico","tag-new-mexico","tag-new-world-screwworm","tag-texas","tag-usa","tag-usda","nfg_topic-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsfire.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11982","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsfire.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsfire.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsfire.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/51"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsfire.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11982"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/newsfire.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11982\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11991,"href":"https:\/\/newsfire.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11982\/revisions\/11991"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsfire.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11981"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsfire.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11982"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsfire.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11982"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsfire.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11982"},{"taxonomy":"nfg_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsfire.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/nfg_topic?post=11982"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}