beef News Updates

As the deadly New World screwworm spreads through Texas, posing significant risk to the U.S. cattle herd, experts are still wondering how it got there.

Four cases of the New World screwworm have been confirmed on the same Texas property, marking the largest cluster of detections to be reported in the U.S.

While the screwworm doesn’t affect food safety, it poses a risk to the U.S. cattle industry, as drought and high production costs have culled the nation’s herd to a 75-year low.

The world’s largest meat supplier also said it is closing a value-added facility in Memphis, Tenn., which packages various proteins.

Consumers on average paid $7.064 for a pound of ground beef in May, slightly higher than the previous month but up 13% from a year earlier. 

The agency is implementing quarantines, movement controls and surveillance in a 12-mile zone around the detection, and has also expedited the release of sterile flies to prevent the pest’s spread.

The U.S. meatpacking industry faces a new wave of scrutiny, this time from Senate Democrats seeking to allow companies to process only one type of meat and set stricter limits on the beef market.

The extension was announced Aug. 6 by the Ministry of Commerce. China is the world’s top buyer of the meat, which means its imports are tracked closely by the global market.