Public Health

Named for the scientists who helped eradicate screwworm, a new Kerrville lab builds on decades of research

Texas Public Radio | By Brian Kirkpatrick

Published June 10, 2026 at 6:35 PM CDT

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, right, listens as U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins speaks during a ribbon-cutting ceremony for the grand opening of a Domestic New World Screwworm Sterile Fly Production Facility to combat the northward spread of NWS and protect American livestock, in Edinburg, Texas, Monday, Feb. 9, 2026.

Sign up for TPR Today, Texas Public Radio's newsletter that brings our top stories to your inbox each morning.

The newly opened Knipling-Bushland U.S. Livestock Insects Research Laboratory in Kerrville is helping shape the nation's response to New World screwworm.

The laboratory is named for Drs. Edward Knipling and Raymond Bushland, the USDA researchers who developed the sterile insect technique that helped eradicate screwworm from the United States, Mexico and Central America.

Photograph of Dr. Edward F. Knipling (seated) and Dr. Raymond C. Bushland.

The facility opened in May, replacing older USDA facilities in Kerrville and modernizing a livestock insect research program that has operated in the area for decades.

"This is also our 80th anniversary of doing this work," said USDA Undersecretary for Research, Education and Economics Scott Hutchins.

That work is taking on new urgency as federal and state officials respond to seven confirmed New World screwworm cases in Texas and New Mexico. The detections involve cattle, goats and a dog, according to the USDA.

The cases come after New World screwworm spread north through Mexico over the last year, prompting federal officials to intensify surveillance and eradication efforts along the border.

The sterile insect technique works by releasing sterile male flies into the wild. Females that mate with them produce no offspring, helping drive down screwworm populations over time.

"We have 100% confidence in the sterile insect technique," he said.

Photograph "Flies From Irradiated Pupae Were Permitted to Emerge in Special Paper Bags and Held Until Released.

Researchers at the laboratory have developed a new strain of sterile fly known as the Novo fly, which could significantly expand eradication efforts.

"It's going to allow us to almost instantaneously double the number of sterile flies that we put in the fight," Hutchins said.

A test container of dyed fly pupae are displayed at a Domestic New World Screwworm Sterile Fly Production Facility to combat the northward spread of NWS and protect American livestock, in Edinburg, Texas, Feb. 9, 2026.

Because female flies are not needed for sterile releases, he said the new strain could dramatically increase production capacity without increasing the number of flies raised.

The research effort is part of a broader federal push to increase sterile fly production. USDA is partnering with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to build a sterile fly production facility at Moore Air Base in South Texas. Officials say the facility will be capable of producing up to 300 million sterile flies per week and will work alongside existing facilities in Panama and Mexico.

Researchers are also developing new attractants and computer modeling tools to help track screwworm populations and improve where sterile flies are released.

File: A COPEG biologist identifies screwworm larvae in the sterile fly production plant laboratory, which fights the spread of the cattle screwworm, in Pacora, Panama. — A COPEG biologist identifies screwworm larvae in the sterile fly production plant laboratory, which fights the spread of the cattle screwworm, in Pacora, Panama.

The laboratory traces its roots to 1946, when the USDA consolidated screwworm research programs from Dallas, Uvalde and Menard into a single facility in Kerr County.

In Menard nearly a decade earlier, entomologist Edward Knipling developed the theory that screwworm populations could be controlled by releasing sterile male flies.

Raymond Bushland later demonstrated that sterile screwworm flies could be produced at scale, helping create the strategy that ultimately eradicated the pest from the United States, Mexico and Central America.

A screwworm fly stands on a leaf at a bio-factory as Mexico's government reconditions a plant to become the new sterile screwworm fly facility, part of the country's effort to eradicate the flesh-eating parasite that threatens its livestock industry and raises tensions with the United States, in Metapa de Dominguez, Mexico, October 17, 2025. — A screwworm fly stands on a leaf at a bio-factory as Mexico's government reconditions a plant to become the new sterile screwworm fly facility, part of the country's effort to eradicate the flesh-eating parasite that threatens its livestock industry and raises tensions with the United States, in Metapa de Dominguez, Mexico.

The laboratory moved to its current Kerrville site in 1963 and was renamed in honor of Knipling and Bushland in 1988.

In a twist of history, the return of New World screwworm has brought new urgency to the research Knipling and Bushland helped pioneer.

TPR was founded by and is supported by our community. If you value our commitment to the highest standards of responsible journalism and are able to do so, please consider making your gift of support today.