The new sterile fly facility in Metapa, MX, officially opened June 27. It will initially produce 28 million to 30 million sterile New World screwworm (NWS) flies per week beginning this month, then scale up to 50 million in 12 weeks and reach 100 million by the end of the year.
USDA began building the facility 11 months ago in coordination with the Mexican government to combat NWS. USDA invested $21 million to renovate and convert an existing fruit fly facility into the new 22,000-square-foot sterile fly production facility.
Since June 3, there have been 30 confirmed cases of NWS in 12 Texas counties. As of this morning (7/6), there are 18 active cases and 12 inactive cases. New Mexico has one inactive case. All active cases are in livestock, including cattle, sheep and goats.