Rollins called screwworm a ‘little pest.’ Last year, she said ‘terrifying’

Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins told CNBC on Monday that the new world screwworm is a “little pest.” In the past, she called the parasite “terrifying.”

The discrepancy in messaging before and after the flesh-eating pest was detected in the U.S. offers a window into how Rollins is managing the screwworm threat now that it has reached inside the border. And it shows how the administration is racing to alleviate fears that the parasite could further raise the price of beef amid rising inflation.

Since screwworm was detected in Texas last week, Rollins has hit the airwaves to reassure the U.S. public that the U.S. Department of Agriculture is ahead of the infestation and that it does not pose a risk to the food system. She has also heaped blame on the Biden administration for the spread, arguing that lax immigration enforcement of the southern border helped the parasite move forward.

“The food supply is not at risk. This is not a virus, it’s not a disease, it’s just a little pest, a larvae that lands in a calf’s wound, for example, and it can be treated,” she said on CNBC Monday. “Under the last administration with the massive movement under the open borders policy, the cartels etc., border security, that’s when it began to make its way back up toward America.”

Last September, however, Rollins was more forthcoming about the threat posed by the screwworm in an appearance on Fox News. She was discussing screwworm as it spread north towards the U.S. from Central America.

“At a time when our beef supply is at its lowest already in 75 years … it is really terrifying, prices are very high for that reason, it could take us into even another phase of real compromise of getting good beef at a good price for Americans,” she said. “We’ve got a plan, we’re on it.”

And at a Senate hearing in May 2025, Rollins said screwworm was a “major threat” that would “devastate our cattle industry in this country.”

Rollins on Wednesday doubled down on blaming the Biden administration when she appeared at another Senate hearing, arguing that “we know this development is a serious threat, but it did not catch us off guard.”

Democrats, meanwhile, are jumping on Rollins and President Donald Trump for the screwworm outbreak.

“Under Donald Trump and Brooke Rollins, farmers and ranchers are suffering, and consumers are grappling with record-high prices,” Democratic National Committee spokeswoman Kendall Witmer said. “Trump’s reckless and harmful cuts and his administration’s incompetence have left the U.S.’s food supply vulnerable to outbreaks and risk escalating already high prices for beef.”

Screwworm was detected in the U.S. at a time when inflation is on the march. Inflation rose 4.2% year-over-year in May, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported Wednesday, reaching the highest annual mark in three years.

The parasite is the larvae of a fly that lays its eggs in open animal wounds. The larvae feed on flesh and can be highly damaging or fatal to cattle. When it’s detected, animal movement and supply can be restricted in affected areas. Screwworm infestation is treatable if caught early enough, and is not a transmissible disease that can be transferred into meat.

With the U.S. cattle herd already low, the pest threatens to increase beef costs more.

The Dallas Fed, in a May report, said that if an outbreak on the magnitude of the 1972 infestation, which saw the most screwworm cases in the U.S., occurred, it could cause roughly $3 billion in damage.

“By sickening or killing cattle, the screwworm could trigger shortages and higher beef prices. This implies that equilibrium prices could fall in the short run, only to then rise in the medium to long run,” the report read.

Six cases of screwworm have been detected in the U.S. as of Wednesday, in Texas and New Mexico. The USDA is racing to contain the spread, releasing swarms of sterile flies that will mate with female screwworm flies and produce infertile eggs. The agency is also implementing quarantine zones, increased trapping, surveillance and outreach.

So far, it’s too early to tell whether the screwworm will escalate into a full-blown infestation or whether the USDA will be able to beat it back. Experts say the correct protocols are in place for containment, but are urging people to report any cases they may see in animals.

“We have hopefully a contained infestation, where we’re checking all the animals in the area, providing treatment to those that need it, and releasing the sterile flies in order to eliminate the small population we hope is in that in that area,” said Philip Kaufman, a professor and the head of the entomology department at Texas A&M University. “What we don’t want is people not reporting; the fly will continue to reproduce and grow in numbers, and then it becomes a much larger infestation that becomes more challenging.”

And while Rollins’ response has seen some blowback from Republicans, including the Texas Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller, she retains the support of key Republicans.

“I’m very appreciative of the work led by Secretary Rollins,” House Agriculture Committee Chair G.T. Thompson, R-Pa. “We’re going to get ahead of this thing, we’re going to eradicate it, the sooner the better.”