Naig: Iowa is monitoring screwworm; parasite poses no food-safety risk

By: Kadin Luhmann

Outlets: Iowa Capital Dispatch

Published: June 5, 2026

Words: 451

Last Updated: 1 month, 2 weeks ago

Iowa Secretary of Agriculture Mike Naig said the state “stands ready” to protect livestock and farmers from screwworm.

Naig’s statement came in a press release issued Friday, two days after the U.S. Department of Agriculture confirmed the nation’s first case of New World screwworm, a parasitic fly that infests and feeds on warm-blooded animals, including humans, in Texas. A sample from a Texas calf was tested and confirmed to be infected at the USDA’s …

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