The U.S. plans to build a $750 million factory in southern Texas to breed billions of sterile flies to ramp up its efforts to keep flesh-eating maggots now in Mexico from damaging the American cattle industry. U.S. Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins announced Friday that the U.S. hopes to be producing and releasing sterile male New World screwworm flies into the wild within a year from the new factory. It would be built outside Edinburg, Texas, about 20 miles from the border. American officials worry that if the fly reaches Texas, its flesh-eating maggots could cause huge economic losses and cause already record retail beef prices to rise even more.
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