NNSA and Texas A and M AgriLife partner to combat New World Screwworm and protect U.S. agriculture

U.S. Secretary of Agriculture, Brooke Rollins, recently announced a new NWS fly dispersal facility in Texas and a five-pronged plan for eradicating the pest. The plan includes the USDA pursuing innovative research, such as eBeam and other technologies.

Though the NWS has recently re-emerged as a threat to the homeland, NNSA's longstanding partnership with Texas A&M is crucial for leveraging academic expertise to combat it and other emerging national security challenges.

Currently, SIT relies on cobalt-60 gamma sterilization. But cobalt-60 carries significant radiological security risks, so NNSA, NCEBR, and Texas A&M's Department of Entomology have worked to find replacement methods. Through modeling studies sponsored by NNSA and conducted by Texas A&M since 2023, researchers have confidently identified eBeam technology as a viable alternative and are working to make it available to USDA to combat this threat that is now less than 75 miles from the United States.

NNSA has been collaborating on the development of an eBeam system to be used for chemical remediation, another critical area where cobalt-60 use could become a risk. With the screwworm bearing down on the United States, NNSA is repurposing this technology towards NWS response and accelerating development to make eBeam available to USDA by early 2026. Once integrated into a rearing facility, it could create over 100 million sterile flies in 24 hours. That's a vast improvement over cobalt-60, which can take a week to do the same amount. This efficiency would be a game-changer in NWS response.