Texas Team Builds Genomic Tool to Track Screwworm
The two-year USDA-funded project aims to flag drug resistance in the parasite, a tool still in the research stage.
Updated on Nov. 2, 2026 in Life Sciences
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Texas A&M researchers received approximately $4 million from USDA's New World Screwworm Grand Challenge for a two-year genomic project. The research is at the funded, in-progress stage, with results still to come.
Why it matters
Screwworm was eradicated from the U.S. through an effort that began in the 1950s, but cases rose again in Panama in 2021 and 2022, and the outbreak reached the United States in June 2026. Tracking how the parasite changes genetically is becoming central to controlling it.
The project will sequence 99.99% of the genome in each screwworm sampled across time and space, using thousands of individuals. Researchers will pair those genomes with collection location and, when available, prior treatment history, but no results have been reported yet.
The players
Texas A&M University
A research university whose team leads the genomic project, drawing on its High Performance Research Computing resources.
USDA
The U.S. Department of Agriculture, which is funding the project through its New World Screwworm Grand Challenge.
The details
The team will sequence nearly the entire genome of each sampled screwworm, the parasitic fly larva that feeds on living animal tissue, and compare those genomes across time and place. Genetic patterns linked to where a fly was collected and whether its host animal had been treated can point to drug susceptibility, meaning how well a drug still kills the parasite. Samples come from the Honduran outbreak, and Honduran collaborators will supply collection location, date, host species, and treatment information when available. The comparison will run on Texas A&M's High Performance Research Computing resources, and the genomic data will be released to other researchers after analyses are complete.
Timeline
2021 and 2022: Screwworm cases began increasing again in Panama.
Late 2025: Honduran officials visited Texas A&M for a planning meeting.
June 2026: The screwworm outbreak reached the United States.
The Tech Race
The project positions Texas A&M and USDA's Grand Challenge as a genomic counterweight to the outbreak's spread through Central America and Mexico. Its aim is a validated molecular test for drug-resistance markers, which would give control programs a faster screening tool than current methods.
Ranchers and livestock producers in Texas and elsewhere will not see any direct change from this project in the near term, because results are still to come over the two-year period. If the planned molecular test is validated, it could eventually help veterinarians and control programs screen for drug resistance before treatments fail.
The takeaway
The project's clearest trajectory marker is the genomic database it plans to release to other researchers once analyses are complete. Watch for that release and for any announced results on drug-resistance markers during the two-year grant period.
Further reading
Explore more Life Sciences coverage to see how genomic tools are being used to track animal and insect disease outbreaks.
Source note: This article includes information reported by Texas A&M Stories.
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Should the federal government fund more research into animal disease outbreaks like screwworm?
