Mounted patrol officers, known as tick riders, who typically patrol the southern border to protect cattle from fever tick, will also now serve as the first line of defense against screwworm.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture will spend up to $750 million to build a sterile fly production facility in Texas to fight the flesh-eating livestock pest New World screwworm, USDA Secretary Brooke Rollins said on Friday.

The U.S. plans to build a $750 million factory in southern Texas to breed billions of sterile flies to ramp up its efforts to keep flesh-eating maggots now in Mexico from damaging the American cattle