Screwworm In Texas Cattle Could Drive Up Beef Prices—After DOGE Axed Prevention Efforts ByMary Whitfill Roeloffs,Forbes Staff. Mary Roeloffs is a Forbes breaking news reporter covering pop culture.
Follow Author Jun 04, 2026, 11:49am EDT
Topline A flesh-eating parasite that was largely eradicated from U.S. livestock in the 1960s has been found in a 3-week-old calf in a south Texas border town, the USDA confirmed, a threat that could drive the already soaring price of beef even higher after Elon Musk-led government cuts slashed ongoing efforts to prevent its spread.
U.S. Cattle Ranchers Trim Herds Amid Drought And Rising Costs Farmer Jose Esquivel and his field of cattle on June 13, 2023 in Quemado, Texas. Getty Images Key Facts New World screwworm, a parasitic fly with larvae that burrow in healthy tissue of cattle, deer, horses and other warm-blooded animals, was discovered in La Pryor, Texas.
The case is the only one that has been identified in the country so far, according to the USDA, but a wider outbreak could severely impact already-suffering cattle numbers and put even more of a strain on ranchers as they spend money on treatment and prevention.
In turn, the price of beef—which has gone up roughly 75% since December 2020—could continue to rise.
The U.S. cattle herd is already at its lowest level in 75 years, and a major screwworm outbreak would cause more calves to die, adult cattle to lose weight and limit what animals are suitable for sale, meaning fewer pounds of beef reaching the market.
Even without a major outbreak, containment efforts may cause the government to implement widespread cattle movement restrictions, limit border crossings or impose quarantine on certain herds, all of which would further impact the nation’s cattle numbers.
The return of screwworm comes after the Musk-led Department of Government Efficiency, launched by the Trump administration, last year cut funding for a project dedicated to monitoring and containing New World screwworm in Central America.
The funding was axed days before the U.S. ended a temporary suspension of cattle imports from Mexico, meaning livestock was allowed to cross the border without any of the monitoring previously funded by the U.S. Agency of International Development (USAID).
Agriculture officials and cattle industry leaders raised alarm about the cuts at the time and, for the last several months, pleaded with the government to step in as they monitored screwworm infections moving north through Mexico—but they were ignored, Texas Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller told NBC News.
The video player is currently playing an ad. Crucial Quote “Instead of using every available tool, USDA moved too slowly and relied solely on a partial solution that takes years to fully implement,” Miller said, adding a plea for President Donald Trump to “throw every available federal resource at this threat before it becomes a full-blown agricultural disaster.”
What Is Screwworm? New World screwworm is a fly that lays its eggs in open wounds and body openings of warm-blooded animals. Infestations start when a female fly lays eggs on open wounds—wounds as small as a tick bite can attract a female fly to lay her eggs—or other parts of the body in live animals. Eggs hatch into maggots that feed on the living flesh for about 7 days before the larvae drop to the ground, burrow into the soil, and emerge as adult screwworm flies—starting the cycle again. Most infestations occur in animals, but they can occur in people. The most recent human case in the U.S. was reported in Maryland last year in a traveler who'd returned from El Salvador. The person recovered.
Key Background The United States eradicated screwworm in the 1960s through a massive sterile fly program, but outbreaks in Mexico and Central America have raised concerns about the parasite moving north again. The eradication was the result of multiple sterile fly programs across the south that cost roughly $42 million in the mid 1960s, the equivalent of about $452 million today. Despite the programs’ success, there have been stand-alone instances of screwworm since, including an isolated outbreak in Texas in 1976 that cost ranches an estimated $452 per head of cattle in today’s dollars, totaling $732 million. Those losses came from cattle death, weight loss and hide damage and the cost of surveillance and treatment. Evidence suggests screwworm outbreaks of the past did drive the price of beef higher, though not necessarily in a dramatic nationwide surge, because ranchers in the 1950s and 60s were working in a much stronger industry with higher herd numbers.The U.S. cattle herd had dropped to 86.2 million head of cattle and calves on U.S. farms as of Jan. 1, the lowest number of cattle in America since 1951. In May, the USDA said it predicts beef production will decline by 0.9 percent to 25.310 billion pounds in 2027 and said cattle prices are “projected to reach new highs as supplies remain limited.” The average price of ground beef has risen from $3.95 in December of 2020 to $6.89 in April, according to the Federal Reserve.
Big Number $1.8 billion. That’s how much economic damage could be caused by another outbreak on the scale of the Texas incident in 1976, according to USDA estimates.
What To Watch For How the government tries to contain the spread. Officials from Texas and the USDA are taking steps to "contain and eradicate" screwworm, the agency said, including implementing cattle quarantines, movement controls and surveillance within a 20 kilometer area of the infected calf; trapping flies along the border; and releasing millions of sterile male New World screwworm flies in the region.
U.S. and Iran trade another round of fire as Iranian official says talks are at a "deadlock"
The U.S. shot down four Iranian one-way attack drones headed toward the Strait of Hormuz overnight Saturday local time, while seven ballistic missiles fired at Kuwait and Bahrain were largely intercepted as well, according to U.S. Central Command. The U.S. retaliated by launching strikes on Iranian coastal surveillance radar sites in Goruk and on Qeshm Island. An adviser to Iran's supreme leader told CNN that negotiations are "at a deadlock" and "the ball is in Trump's court," urging the U.S. to unfreeze billions in Iranian assets.
Fighting between Israel and Iran-backed Hezbollah is continuing to complicate prospects for ending the Iran war, as Tehran insists those hostilities must end before a U.S.-Iran peace deal can be reached. Israel and Lebanon agreed to renew their truce this week, but Hezbollah rejected the truce Thursday, and Israeli strikes in southern Lebanon were reported Friday.
‘RUMP’: Customers upset with missing ‘T’ in Trump-branded watch that cost $640
PROVIDENCE, R.I. (WJAR) – A man in Rhode Island bought his wife a Donald Trump-branded watch as a gift, but what they got was a “Rump” watch due to an unfortunate typo on the watch face.
Tim Petit paid $640 for a limited-edition Trump watch that is only one of 250 made.
“I thought it was really nice. It was beautiful, and I knew it would be something that she’d like,” he said.
Petit bought the watch after hearing an ad for it on the radio, featuring Trump himself.
“With the president’s voice … I was curious, so I went on the website,” he said.
Petit went to gettrumpwatches.com and picked out the Pink Inauguration First Lady model for his wife.
Melanie Petit said she likes the style, but it’s what the watch is missing – the “T” in “Trump” – that makes it stand out.
“I noticed it right away. The T is missing. It just says R-U-M-P,” she said.
The Petits are wondering why a watch with such a glaring error was allowed to be shipped out.
“How could they process this and go through something without checking their work?” Melanie Petit asked.
“I’m very disappointed,” Tim Petit said. “I want it to be a special thing for her. And we had expected that it would have the integrity of the president of the United States and good follow through.”
The gettrumpwatches.com website calls its products the “official watches of President Trump,” but in the small print, it notes that it licenses the name and likeness.
The site also states that it has nothing to do with any political campaign, that the watches are not designed, manufactured, distributed, or sold by Donald J. Trump, the Trump Organization, or any of their respective affiliates or principals.
“I think that someone needs to be aware of it [the mistake] in their licensing department, that someone’s dropped the ball big time,” Tim Petit said. “And an apology would be nice for making my wife cry.”
The couple was initially frustrated because they were having trouble getting a response from the company, but they said the company has since reached out to apologize. The company is planning to replace the watch and offered the Petits an $800 coupon to buy something else on the site.
Trump Judge Refers DOJ Lawyers for Discipline in Trans Hospital Subpoena Case
U.S. District Judge Mary McElroy, a Trump appointee, on Friday referred Justice Department lawyers for disciplinary proceedings after writing that the attorneys' "reckless disregard for the duty of candor owed to a federal court is appalling."
The order stems from the Trump administration's attempt to trawl for sensitive information about trans kids by subpoenaing hospitals that provide gender affirming care. Some hospital systems — including the University of Michigan's, as TPM first reported in August — stopped providing care altogether rather than fight the subpoenas. But others spawned lawsuits.
McElroy, a judge in the District of Rhode Island, had ruled in mid-May to quash the Rhode Island Hospital subpoena, shooting down the DOJ's thin argument that doctors' use of off-label medications entitled the government to the names, social security numbers, addresses and medical histories of trans children who'd been treated there.
In that ruling, she traced the DOJ misconduct that led her to Friday's order. Courts, at least up until the second Trump administration, operated under the "presumption of regularity," in which government officials are presumed to have acted in good faith and followed proper procedure until proven otherwise. That presumption no longer holds, McElroy wrote.
"As citizens, we trust that federal prosecutors, when wielding this awesome power against a state, a company, or certainly against vulnerable children, will play fair and be honest with its counterparts and the judiciary," she wrote. "DOJ has proven unworthy of this trust at every point in this case."
Soon after it received the subpoena, the hospital engaged in active negotiations with the DOJ to try to narrow its scope. The Justice Department attorneys suddenly went quiet on the hospital, later discovered to have asked a friendlier court in the Northern District of Texas to force the production of documents that the parties were in talks over. The Child Advocate for the State of Rhode Island subsequently went to McElroy's court to quash the subpoena, putting the case on two parallel tracks.
And in Texas, the lead DOJ attorney, acting director of DOJ's Enforcement and Affirmative Litigation Branch Lisa Hsiao, did not inform the court about deals the department had come to with other hospitals that included anonymizing the data it sought.
"Her assertion that DOJ needed this information was therefore, at best, deceptive, if not intentionally and knowingly false," McElroy wrote.
Meanwhile, the U.S. District judge in Texas — Reed O'Connor, a Trump administration favorite — immediately granted the DOJ's request to enforce the subpoena without even notifying the hospital or giving it a chance to respond.
A Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals panel of one Clinton appointee and two Trump ones denied the hospital's emergency request to stay O'Connor's order during appeal in a one sentence order. O'Connor has ordered the hospital to turn over all the documents the subpoena compels it to provide to the court, where he said they will be inaccessible to the government during the appeals process.
udges across the country have balked at misconduct by Trump DOJ lawyers. In a major case involving the prosecution of the Chicago "Broadview Six" ICE protesters, a judge found last month that the DOJ attorneys had retracted portions of a grand jury transcript to mask egregious misbehavior, including dismissing jurors who disagreed with the government's case. Defense attorneys for the protesters are now seeking sanctions.
"The discrepancy between the honorable conduct expected of federal prosecutors and DOJ's tactics in this case is unsettling," McElroy wrote in the May opinion. "The Court cannot help but share the sentiment that '[t]he presumption of regularity that has previously been extended to [DOJ] that it could be taken at its word — with little doubt about its intentions and stated purposes — no longer holds.' It is regrettable that this is now the case."
Satellite imagery appears to show damage at US air base in Kuwait after Iranian attack Images appear to contradict US claims that they intercepted all Iranian missiles fired at the Gulf country
Screengrab of satellite imagery of the US Ali Al Salem Air Base in Kuwait released by Soar Atlas (Screengrab/X) By MEE staff Published date: 4 June 2026 11:20 BST | Last update: 2 days 5 hours ago Satellite imagery appears to show damage to a US air base in Kuwait following Iranian strikes on Wednesday.
New imagery of the site released by Soar Atlas seems to show a destroyed shelter at the US Ali Al Salem Air Base, despite US Central Command (Centcom) insisting that all the missiles and drones targeting the site were "defeated".
Soar Atlas noted that the area surrounding the base "appears charred, with multiple impact craters visible nearby".
In a statement, Centcom said that Iran had fired "several ballistic missiles toward regional neighbours", but claimed that "all failed to hit their intended targets".
It added that the two missiles fired at Kuwait "fell short or broke apart enroute" and that three missiles launched at Bahrain "were immediately intercepted" by air defences.
Kuwait's foreign ministry said on Wednesday that a volley of Iranian missiles had struck the country's international airport and diplomatic missions. Local officials reported that one person was killed in the attack - who was later identified as an Indian citizen - and another 60 injured.
Video footage from the airport showed extensive damage, with fires raging in terminal one, a collapsed roof and billowing clouds of smoke.
After the attacks, Kuwaiti defence ministry spokesperson Brigadier General Saud al-Otayan condemned what he described as “criminal Iranian aggression”.
Iran on Wednesday said that the strikes on Kuwait's airport were the result of a US Patriot missile interceptor hit, a claim that Centcom immediately denied.
Iran's Tasnim news agency cited the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) as saying that they did not fire at Kuwait airport.
Pentagon raised threat of Israeli spying on U.S. to highest level, sources say The counterintelligence threat level was raised by the Defense Intelligence Agency in recent weeks after growing concerns that Israeli espionage had become more aggressive than usual, sources say.
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Trump Mideast Wars Gaza President Donald Trump Israeli and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speak after Netanyahu addressed the Knesset, Israel's parliament, Monday, Oct. 13, 2025, in Jerusalem.Chip Somodevilla / Pool via AP file
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Savewith a NBCUniversal Profile June 5, 2026, 10:13 PM EDT By Gordon Lubold, Courtney Kube and Dan De Luce WASHINGTON — The Pentagon is increasingly concerned about Israel ramping up its spying on the U.S., recently raising the counterintelligence threat level from America’s top ally in the Middle East to the highest level, according to two U.S. officials and one former U.S. official.
The Pentagon’s Defense Intelligence Agency in recent weeks issued the new counterintelligence threat assessment amid rising tensions between Israel and the U.S. over the way forward in the war with Iran, the officials said. They said the DIA posted an internal message, viewed by one of the current officials, that raised the level for Israel to “critical.”
The designation stems from concerns within the Pentagon that Israel is making a particular effort to surveil top U.S. officials to get information on the Trump administration’s internal deliberations and decision-making on the conflicts in the Middle East, the officials said.
The DIA assessment includes a seven-page document and features a chart, according to one of the current U.S. officials. The document says the assessment of Israel is that its ability to conduct human espionage and technical collection is at a ”critical level,” according to the official.
It also identifies a series of specific incidents that heightened U.S. concerns, the official said.
A spokesperson for the Israeli embassy in Washington, D.C., said in a statement that it is “completely false” that Israel spies on the U.S. “Israel does not gather intelligence on American entities, let alone US government officials,” the spokesperson said. “Israel intelligence collection efforts are aimed at its enemies, not its allies. Any claims to the contrary are either misinformed or politically motivated.”
The Pentagon declined to comment.
A White House official said in a statement, “This entire story is false and sourced to someone who doesn’t have any knowledge of what’s going on.”
The Office of the Director of National Intelligence, which oversees all the U.S. intelligence agencies including the DIA, did not respond to a request for comment.
While it is commonplace for allies and adversaries across the globe to spy on each other, the current and former U.S. officials said Israel’s recent efforts have gone well beyond what is typical and expected espionage. The officials did not know if a specific incident triggered the DIA’s decision to raise the counterintelligence threat level.
The heightened alert comes as President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu have clashed over the war with Iran and Israel’s military operations in Lebanon, including in a tense phone call this past week, NBC News reported. Trump acknowledged afterward to reporters that he called Netanyahu “crazy” during the call as questions mount about whether the two countries’ objectives in the Middle East are beginning to significantly diverge.
Since a ceasefire went into place in early April, Trump has been pursuing a diplomatic deal with Iran to end the war Israel and the U.S. launched on Feb. 28. Israel has publicly expressed skepticism that Iran would abide by any negotiated deal. Netanyahu has pushed for a resumption of bombing raids against Iran and disagreed with Trump, who has pressed him to scale back attacks against Hezbollah in Lebanon, according to Western officials.
Israel is keenly interested in whether Trump decides to resume major combat operations against Iran or to end the conflict, the current and former U.S. officials and outside experts said.
The most practical outcome for the Pentagon is that U.S. officials will use extra caution when traveling to Israel or visiting with Israeli officials, the current and former U.S. officials said. They said there did not appear to be any impact on the high-level intelligence-sharing that occurs on a daily basis between the two countries, particularly associated with the war in Iran.
“The U.S. already takes extra precautions when visiting Israel,” one of the current U.S. officials said. “They’re well-known to aggressively collect.”
The U.S., like other countries, maintains elaborate counterintelligence or “spy catcher” efforts to prevent and track espionage by foreign adversaries as well as by allies and partners, seeking to safeguard state secrets and monitor attempts to recruit or coerce U.S. officials. Under U.S. law, the FBI has the leading role in counter-intelligence efforts, but they also involve a range of government agencies and the military.
According to current and former diplomats and former national security officials, Israel for years has had a reputation for aggressive espionage even against the U.S., its closest ally. It’s a practice that has long raised concerns among national security and diplomatic officials, and U.S. intelligence officials closely monitor the issue, according to experts and the current and former U.S. officials.
Top U.S. officials often take extra care when traveling to Israel, sometimes using burner phones and computers and extreme caution when speaking in hotel rooms during official trips, the current and former U.S. officials and experts said.
Israel has “a hyper-aggressive intelligence service,” said Emily Harding, vice president of the Defense and Security Department and director of the intelligence, national security and technology program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a think tank in Washington. “They are exceedingly interested in what we are up to,” Harding said of the Israelis.
In the 1980s, spying by Israel caused a rift with Washington, with U.S. Navy intelligence analyst Jonathan Pollard spending 30 years in prison after he was found to have sold suitcases of top-secret documents to Israel.
The U.S. also spies on its allies and seeks to gather intelligence on foreign partners, as evidenced in 2013 by leaks from intelligence contractor Edward Snowden.
Those leaks showed that the U.S. was eavesdropping on European leaders, including then-German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s mobile phone, sparking outrage in Berlin.
The U.S. and Israel remain close allies and the two countries’ intelligence services have forged a close, working relationship over decades. But concerns about possible Israeli espionage at such a sensitive moment — when the two governments are not in full agreement about the war with Iran — carry the risk of undermining trust between the two countries, two additional former U.S. officials said.
Trump directs acting intelligence chief to cut staff amid criticism over Pulte pick
President Donald Trump is reportedly urging his new acting director of national intelligence, Bill Pulte, to start firing employees.
President Donald Trump is urging Bill Pulte, his new acting director of national intelligence, to reduce the size of the office amid criticism over his temporary appointment.
"I've heard that's way too high for way too long," Trump told reporters Friday aboard Air Force One. "If he cut, I wouldn't mind that."
Trump told the Wall Street Journal in an earlier interview Friday that he asked Pulte to start the process of firing employees of an office that has already faced significant cuts during the president's second term.
The Office of the Director of National Intelligence oversees the nation’s 18 intelligence agencies and was created in the wake of the 9/11 attacks to improve information-sharing.
Trump’s decision to put Pulte in charge of that office has faced backlash on Capitol Hill, including from some Republicans, because Pulte has no known national security experience.
Pulte has also targeted the president's perceived political opponents in his other role leading the Federal Housing Finance Agency by making criminal referrals alleging insurance and mortgage fraud.
"Mr. Pulte has no national security expertise. None. We're not even sure if he's got a basic security clearance," said Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., the ranking member on the Senate Intelligence Committee. "This role is too important to be filled by a part-time, unqualified individual."
Trump praised Pulte on Friday, calling him "very talented." He also indicated that he is interviewing five other candidates to permanently replace Tulsi Gabbard, who resigned from the role following her husband’s cancer diagnosis.
"All people that do that kind of thing, and they're very respected people," Trump added, without naming any of the individuals under consideration.
At least for now, concerns over Pulte’s temporary appointment have delayed the renewal of a national security surveillance program that he would help administer. The Senate blocked an extension of the program Friday, but another vote is expected next week before it expires June 12.
Seven Republican senators joined nearly all Democrats in opposing a procedural vote to advance the short-term extension.
The tool is part of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act and allows agencies like the CIA and FBI to collect communications from foreign targets without a warrant.
Critics have raised concerns that Americans’ communications are sometimes swept up in the process and are pushing for a warrant requirement when accessing those communications. Others argue such a requirement risks hamstringing law enforcement. Negotiations on reforms are expected to continue if a short-term extension is passed.
Your 'honest conversation' went from the war being about Iran having imminent nuclear weapon capacity (my point from the very beginning) to you trying to twist into Iran "being a threat" because it's not too hard to make a nuclear weapon... which is such a broad and undefined reason/excuse for a country to go to war, it's laughable.
Then on European allies - when they haven't supported all of the US actions in the Iran War - instead of acknowledging the very strong probability that is because they have been offered no evidence of Iran having imminent nuclear capability - you tried to opine that it was more likely it was down to weak leadership under political pressure at home. To support this opinion you then talked about France's troop deployment - which has ZERO to do with them allowing the US to use US airbases in France to launch or fuel planes that were proactively bombing Iran.
Sorry for using "ALL" instead of focusing specifically on the EU countries that denied the US the full function of the US airbases. While you might feel that's a gotcha - I disagree. But it was a mistake and I acknowledged that then and now.
You then tried to pivot and change the conversation to talk about my in depth knowledge of building and making nuclear weapons and conventional ordinance - which has nothing to do with how or why the EU countries made their decisions regarding the use of US air bases.
Apparently pivoting and changing the conversation is destroying people's logic ... which is funny because Pit gets accused of changing the topic constantly by you and others and it's always presented as a really bad thing to do.
No, I haven't been changing my reasons, there are just multiple interconnected reasons, and they all add up. Each one is still relevant.
Their reason isn't that there's no evidence, because there is some. I gave multiple reasons they could be doing what they're doing. Emphasis on could be. I talked about all of NATO's deployment because it's another separate potential reason. Most military decisions aren't made on a single point. And, unfortunately, a lot of those reasons can be political.
The US has no air bases in France (nor does any other country.) France is big on military sovereignty. Been that way since 1966.
My conversation follows the posts I'm replying to. You insist there's no evidence when there are multiple pieces of evidence, and I'm going to question your knowledge of the subject.
Responding to other people's pivots after they try to change the conversation isn't the same as a certain poster's changing other people's words and pretending they said something different.
• Lady Maga aka Lindsay Graham • Red Hat Chili Peppers • Magadeth • Impeaches & Herb • the Magas and the Papas • Earth Wind & You’re Fired • Supertrump
I don't think Willis is the answer in Miami just like you. I'm not sure they have much faith in him either. I can't see a world where if Willis doesn't show a lot of promise that they would not draft a QB if they land at the #1 or #2 spot in the draft. They have Willis on a three year 45 mil guaranteed deal. If you add a rookie contract to that amount it would still be somewhat reasonable. IMO it was set up that way. A short term bridge is all I think they foresaw Willis as from the beginning. With a "could, maybe, possibly" on the side.
OK, all that said, I will be shocked if the Cardinals aren't holding the #1 overall pick in 2027. Nothing about what they have done this off season shows they have grown as a team.
While I like Jeremiyah Love, I don't think his offensive line is ready to make him the ORY.
Jacoby Brissett... yes Jacoby Brissett is a camp contract holdout, only because he see's himself as the teams starter, which happened by default. I really don't think they are any worse off telling him to sulk in the corner and just bite the bullet and start Carson Beck. After all, they need to see what Beck can do before making a decision on a QB in 2027 draft, right?
In the end, I will be surprised if they aren't already planning on a QB in the draft and Gardner Minshew becomes the offensive scapegoat.
The 2027 is nothing more than fantasy right now. If the Jets and Cardinals are ahead in the draft order of 27. We get the third QB selected.
Jets, Cardinals AND Dolphins and the Browns could be relegated to 4th choice... which realistically could still be their first choice. We need to see how this college season pans out. But I agree with your point!
I know the Dolphins signed Malik Willis, I just don't hold him to that high of a probability. I would put it on a similar level to Shedeur Sanders, if I'm being honest. He had everything lined up perfectly in Green Bay, all he had to do is not mess up while being a backup... Now he comes to an organization that has been in a tail spin for several years, moved on from their pro bowl receivers and doesn't have an identity yet with a new head coach and staff coming in with him. He will be asked to build the new offense in Miami, not just step in and not mess up...similar situation to Sanders.
If Miami is as bad as I think they are going to be, I think they end up with the #1 overall pick in 2027. That could be great or really bad for the Browns. If they think they can't give up on Willis after one season, the Browns might just have a trade partner. If they realize immediately in their mistake, it could move the Browns one more spot away from a viable starting QB.
