UC Davis wins USDA award to build early warning system for New World screwworm

System will include AI sentinel cameras, a handheld DNA test and a five-state wildlife surveillance network

According to a November 3 news release by Pranav Pandit, the USDA Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) has awarded UC Davis Weill School of Veterinary Medicine a two-year, $4.37 million award under its New World Screwworm Grand Challenge.

The project, “Smart Surveillance for Screwworm: Deploying Cutting-Edge Detection Technologies Across State Networks,” began October 28, 2026. Led by Pandit, a veterinary epidemiologist, it will watch for screwworm in wildlife across California, Arizona, New Mexico, Texas and Florida. It will also feature outreach into northern Mexico.

Why it matters

New World screwworm (NWS) is a fly whose larvae feed on the living flesh of warm-blooded animals, including livestock, wildlife, pets and occasionally people. The U.S. eradicated it in 1966, but the pest has surged north since 2023. It had reached the Mexican state of Tamaulipas, near the Texas border, by early 2026. The USDA estimates an outbreak in Texas alone could cost the state’s economy $1.8 billion a year.

Last month, the USDA confirmed the first NWS infestation in U.S. wildlife. The affected animal was an elk harvested by a hunter on a game ranch in Pecos County, Texas. In the past week alone, new cases were confirmed in dogs, a cat and cattle. The cases were located across Texas, New Mexico and Arizona. In all, USDA has confirmed 79 animal cases in the U.S. since June. At this writing, 25 of them are still active, mostly in livestock.

Layered system

Current surveillance focuses on livestock and ports of entry, leaving remote wildlife areas as a blind spot. In 2016, screwworm killed more than 13% of the endangered Key deer in the Florida Keys before it was detected. This project is designed to close that gap.

UC Davis leads the project with three partners. They are Conservation X Labs (Sentinel AI cameras and the NABIT device), EpiEcos and the Wildlife Neighbors Database Project. State wildlife agencies in all five corridor states are advising, along with state agriculture departments.

The team will build a layered early warning system with four parts:

Hotspot maps: Risk models combining climate, land use and animal host data to predict where screwworm is most likely to establish. These will guide surveillance and future sterile fly releases
AI “sentinel” cameras: About 100 smart cameras placed in high-risk wildlife corridors that recognize screwworm-like wounds and send real-time alerts
WildAlert and a handheld DNA test: Expansion of WildAlert, a UC Davis, WNDP and EpiEcos-led wildlife health alert system, into Texas and New Mexico. This will be paired with NABIT, a portable device that screens suspect cases in the field before federal lab confirmation
Education for Detection: Training for stakeholders including hunters, trappers, biologists and wildlife rehabilitators on spotting screwworm and reporting it quickly

“Last month’s elk case in Texas showed that wildlife is still a blind spot in screwworm surveillance,” Pandit said. “This award brings together veterinarians, engineers, wildlife rehabilitators, and state wildlife and agriculture agencies across five states, so we can spot screwworm in wildlife early and get that information to responders fast.”

To keep abreast of the number of horses affected by NWS, go to the EQUUS Screwworm Tracker.

Landing page image by USDA