Federal and state officials were in Edinburg Monday for the opening of a sterile fly dispersal facility that officials said will help protect livestock from the parasitic New World Screwworm.

Cases of screwworm have been reported in the Mexican state of Nuevo León across the border from the Rio Grande Valley.

The facility, located at the former Moore Air Base, will release sterile male screwworm flies to prevent female flies from reproducing.

The female flies mate only once in their entire adult lives, the USDA said. 

“This facility will be a critical part of our overall efforts to combat the New World Screwworm, allowing USDA to disperse sterile flies more readily in northern Mexico, and here in the southern United States,” U.S. Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins said during a Monday press conference. 

According to a news release, the sterile flies from the newly-opened facility are being dispersed from a facility in Mexico.

The parasite is the flesh-eating spawn of the New World Screwworm fly. Their eggs are laid in open wounds and can infest livestock, threatening the industry in Texas.

“When I was here last spring, all of the models showed that the screwworm would be on our side of the border,” Rollins said.

So far there have not been any active cases of the screwworm in the United States, federal officials said. 

Efforts to prevent the spread of the screwworm will continue. The U.S. Department of Agriculture is building a new, $750 million factory to breed sterile flies near the sterile fly facility.

The breeding facility is expected to be ready by the end of 2027.

Watch the video above for the full story.