EXCLUSIVE: DHS Wargames Response To Potential Flesh-Eating Parasitic Outbreak

The Daily Caller News Foundation has learned the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) ran a simulation preparing for an outbreak of New World screwworm (NWS), a flesh-eating parasitic larva that primarily targets cattle.

DHS teamed with federal partners this month for a two-part exercise aimed at bolstering national preparedness and sharpening coordination for emerging animal and public health threats. The Department of Agriculture (USDA), the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Department of the Interior (DOI) convened with the DHS for the exercise, which included three possible NWS outbreak scenarios.

NWS infects animals — mainly livestock, but also birds and occasionally humans — by burrowing into living flesh and laying eggs, causing serious tissue damage. Though there hasn’t been a major U.S. outbreak since the 1960s, recent cases below the southern border raised concerns among officials that NWS could devastate the American beef industry and send shockwaves through the agriculture, wildlife and hunting sectors.

“Food security is national security. I want to thank Secretary Rollins and Secretary Burgum for recognizing that and taking action to protect the American people,” DHS Secretary Kristi Noem said in a statement provided to the DCNF. “A country that cannot feed itself and provide for itself cannot defend itself. We need to protect America’s food supply to protect the American homeland.”

“This is the first exercise of its kind,” acting DHS Chief Medical Officer and Acting Director of the Office of Health Security Dr. Sean Conley said in a statement. “The sessions provided participants with a shared operational baseline and an opportunity to test coordination and identify decision points critical to an effective government response.”

The simulation included three scenarios: illegal cattle smuggling, transmission via wild animals and by way of a human with a screwworm-infested wound, according to the DHS. Decision makers from federal, state, local and tribal authorities attended the event, the DHS told the DCNF.

The Trump administration has been addressing the NWS threat below the southern border, closing imports several times last year and announcing a major first-of-its-kind domestic lab in June 2025 at Moore Air Base in south Texas. The lab would release sterile flies to disrupt the screwworm mating cycle, preventing new larvae from scourging wildlife, according to the USDA.

Several in the livestock industry previously explained to the DCNF how destructive a NWS outbreak could be, and how the U.S. eradicated the pest in past decades.

“It can be extremely gruesome to see not only cattle, but deer and dogs and other animals … the pain and the suffering that the animal has to go through is what makes this just so incredibly terrible from an animal health perspective,” Colin Woodall, chief executive officer of the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association, told the DCNF previously. “This is a significant concern in our industry [though] Mother Nature gave us a favor.”

“Luckily, we do have a solution for this,” Stephen Diebel, first vice president of Texas and Southwestern Cattle Raisers Association, previously told the DCNF, noting that screwworm is “devastating.”

Notably, livestock producers suffered multimillion-dollar losses due to NWS before eradication.

“Because New World screwworm can affect any warm-blooded animal, as well as birds and people, a coordinated Federal, state, and local One Health response is critical to strengthening our preparedness efforts,” Rear Admiral Michael Schmoyer, Associate Administrator for USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service and New World Screwworm Directorate Director said in a statement. “Though this exercise is only one small part of our overall preparedness efforts, it allowed us to identify gaps and strengthen collaboration to ensure we are ready should New World screwworm reach the United States.”