Edinburg's $750 Million Fly Factory Rises to Its Second Floor as Screwworm Cases Reach 79

The federal government's sterile fly plant at Moore Air Base now has a second floor taking shape.

In a Facebook post published around Oct. 31, the USDA Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service said crews had completed the first-level slab and made the project's first second-level concrete placement. The agency described the building as a New World screwworm sterile fly production facility and tagged the post #BuildingAFlyFactory. Photos show crews in hard hats spreading and vibrating concrete over rebar under work lights.

The milestone is USDA's claim. The 956 Report has not independently verified the construction progress. What follows is what the post does not say.

WHAT IS BEING BUILT

The plant will raise screwworm flies, sterilize them with radiation and release them over target areas. Female screwworm flies mate once. When they mate with a sterile male, their eggs do not hatch. This method, called the sterile insect technique, is how the United States eradicated screwworm in 1966.

USDA says the Moore Air Base plant will be the only sterile fly production facility on U.S. soil. It is designed to work alongside the COPEG plant in Panama, which produces about 100 million sterile flies per week, and a converted facility in Metapa, Mexico, that USDA says has opened.

Moore Air Base is not new to this fight. The site, northwest of Mission in Hidalgo County, served the original screwworm eradication program decades ago. In February 2026, USDA opened a sterile fly dispersal facility there. That site releases flies by air but does not produce them. The flies it disperses are shipped in from outside the country.

THE PRICE TAG HAS THREE NUMBERS

Readers will see different figures for this project. All three come from official or reported sources, and they measure different things.

$610 million: The construction contract total cited by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which is managing design and construction. The contractor is Mortenson of Minneapolis.

$750 million: The amount USDA Secretary Brooke Rollins announced in August 2025 for the facility, and the figure most outlets used at the April 17, 2026 groundbreaking.

Nearly $800 million: The figure KRGV reported in October 2026 after an interview with USDA.

USDA has not publicly broken down the gap between the construction contract and the larger totals. The 956 Report has asked APHIS for an itemized figure and will update this story with any response.

For context, a June 2025 congressional letter to Secretary Rollins estimated a domestic plant would cost about $300 million, plus annual operating costs.

THE TIMELINE KEEPS MOVING, AND THE WORDS MATTER

USDA's official target at the groundbreaking was initial operation by November 2027, producing 100 million flies per week. Full capacity of 300 million flies per week would follow. Under Secretary Dudley Hoskins said at the groundbreaking that the 300 million mark would come at the end of 2028.

In August 2026, Rollins said the project was running ahead of schedule. In October, Hoskins told KRGV that after added staffing commitments and double shifts, USDA now targets April 2027 to finish construction.

Finishing the building is not the same as producing flies. Hoskins told KRGV that USDA still must build a fly colony after construction ends, and the agency expects to reach that goal by the end of 2027. The night photos in USDA's post fit the double-shift schedule Hoskins described.

WHY THE CLOCK MATTERS

When ground was broken in April, screwworm had not been confirmed in a U.S. animal in the current outbreak. That changed on June 3, when USDA confirmed a case in a calf in Zavala County.

As of Nov. 1, USDA data compiled by Texas Public Radio showed 79 confirmed animal cases across Texas, New Mexico and Arizona since June. Of those, 25 were active. Officials also recorded five wild screwworm flies in surveillance traps, four of them in October.

The Rio Grande Valley recorded its first confirmed case in Starr County on July 18, according to the Advance News Journal. Starr County Judge Eloy Vera signed a disaster declaration in response. On Oct. 21, USDA confirmed the first U.S. wildlife case, an elk on a game ranch in Pecos County.

A Texas A&M entomologist told state lawmakers in May that a major infestation could cost the state's cattle industry and broader economy $1.8 billion.

WHAT IT MEANS FOR THE VALLEY

The plant is being built in Hidalgo County's backyard, roughly 20 miles from the Mexican border according to industry reports. One agricultural outlet reported the operation is expected to require about 400 employees. USDA has not confirmed a hiring figure to The 956 Report.

Questions the post does not answer include how many of those jobs will be filled locally, what the plant will cost to run each year, and how much water and power a facility producing 300 million flies a week will draw. The 956 Report has submitted these questions to APHIS.

WHAT RANCHERS AND PET OWNERS SHOULD DO NOW

Screwworm is not a food safety threat, according to USDA. Human cases are rare. The risk falls on livestock, wildlife and pets.

Check animals for wounds that worsen instead of heal, foul-smelling drainage or visible larvae. Call a veterinarian right away. Report suspected cases to the Texas Animal Health Commission.

A second floor of concrete is real progress. But the domestic fly supply this region is waiting on is still more than a year away by USDA's own estimate, and the parasite is already here.

SOURCES

USDA APHIS Facebook post, "Construction Update: Moore Air Base - Edinburg, TX," approx. Oct. 31, 2026

USDA press release, Feb. 9, 2026: Completion of sterile fly dispersal facility

USDA and USACE press release, March 9, 2026: Construction contract with Mortenson

USDA press release, April 17, 2026: Groundbreaking

USACE Fort Worth District / DVIDS, April 21, 2026: $610 million project cost

KRGV, Oct. 5, 2026: "Sterile screwworm fly facility in Edinburg to be completed sooner, USDA says"

Texas Public Radio, Nov. 1, 2026: Screwworm case tracker (79 cases)

Texas Public Radio, June 10, 2026: Testimony to Texas Senate panel

Advance News Journal: Starr County case confirmed

Reuters via U.S. News, Oct. 21, 2026: First U.S. wildlife detection

House Agriculture Committee letter to Secretary Rollins, June 17, 2025

Oklahoma Farm Report: Employment estimate

Feed Business MEA, Aug. 11, 2026: Rollins site visit