USDA Begins Hiring 228 Workers for the Nation's Largest Screwworm Facility in Texas
The U.S. Department of Agriculture announced on November 10 that it will begin hiring 228 workers for the New World Screwworm Sterile Fly Production Facility in Edinburg, Hidalgo County, Texas, starting this month. Applicants can apply online at USAJobs.gov or attend a hiring event in McAllen, Texas, from November 17-19, where hiring managers will conduct on-site interviews.
Housed at Moore Air Base, the facility will be the first U.S.-based sterile fly production facility. Construction is to be completed in April 2027, with production expected to reach 100 million sterile flies per week in 2027 and about 300 million per week at full capacity. Secretary of Agriculture Brooke L. Rollins said protecting U.S. livestock and wildlife from New World Screwworm is a national security priority and that the facility will open nearly five years ahead of schedule.
The sterile insect technique raises screwworm flies and sterilizes them with irradiation before release in targeted areas. Because female screwworm flies mate only once, mating with sterile males produces eggs that do not hatch, and sterile flies pose no risk to animals or people. USDA currently funds two facilities in North America, in Panama, producing 100 million sterile flies per week, and in Mexico, which opened in June 2026 and is ramping up toward 100 million per week. The hiring event runs 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. CT, November 17-19, at the Embassy Suites by Hilton McAllen Convention Center, 800 Convention Center Blvd.
(Source: U.S. Department of Agriculture)
Source: U.S. Department of Agriculture
Published by GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 图：新世界螺旋蝇幼虫特写，其口器上的獠状颚刺会啃食温血动物的活体组织。John Kucharski 摄，美国农业部农业研究局（ARS）公共领域图片（编号 K7576-1），经 Wikimedia Commons。 / Photo: Close-up of a New World screwworm larva. Photo by John Kucharski, Agricultural Research Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture, public domain (image K7576-1), via Wikimedia Commons.
