* USDA fast-tracks treatments, accelerates funding to combat

screwworm pest

* Staffing cuts and sterile fly shortages raise concerns

among ranchers and Democratic senators

* Merck ( MRK ) and Elanco drugs receive conditional FDA approval,

sent to USDA stockpile in Texas

By Leah Douglas

WASHINGTON, June 11 (Reuters) - The U.S. government is

fast-tracking drugs and accelerating grant funding in its

multi-agency strategy to beat back the New World screwworm, a

parasite that threatens the nation's beleaguered cattle herd,

even as staffing cuts and a shortage of a key prevention tool

have raised concerns about the response.

A widespread outbreak of the pest could pose a

multi-billion-dollar threat to the beef industry, already

plagued by longstanding drought. Beef prices are near record

highs, contributing to Americans' economic anxiety as the

November midterms approach, where President Donald Trump's

Republican party will fight to maintain its slim control of

Congress.

The USDA has been working since early last year with animal

health companies, state livestock officials, farm groups and

other federal agencies to prepare for the potential incursion of

screwworm into the U.S., according to agency statements and

Reuters interviews.

Yet the agency is operating with 25% fewer animal health

experts than it had at the start of Trump's second term, after

hundreds took a financial incentive program offered as part of

the administration's earlier effort to shrink the size of the

federal workforce.

That preparation has included fast-tracking screwworm

treatments for farm animals and pets, building a stockpile of

those treatments in Texas and surging personnel to areas of

Texas where cases have been confirmed.

"We have been prepared and preparing since early last year

for the re-emergence in America," said Agriculture Secretary

Brooke Rollins on Monday at a press conference in Kerrville,

Texas, where she also said the USDA will distribute $100 million

in funding earlier than expected for new technologies to combat

screwworm.

The agency has more than 100 staff working full-time on

screwworm, Rollins told the Senate Agriculture Committee on

Wednesday. So far, the USDA has confirmed six screwworm cases in

Texas and New Mexico, affecting four cows, a goat and a dog.

Some Texas ranchers are critical of the USDA's response so

far. Susan Storey, 62, a rancher in La Salle County, said the

agency's public communications were insufficient to soothe her

concerns about the spread of the pest.

"We just want more action," she said.

TREATMENTS FAST-TRACKED

As part of the federal preparation, the Food and Drug

Administration has issued 12 emergency use authorizations or

conditional approvals for screwworm treatments since last

September. Both categories allow for the treatments to be used

once companies have provided safety and some efficacy evidence,

but without going through the FDA's full review process.

That fast-tracking was coordinated among the FDA, the USDA

and the Environmental Protection Agency, which has authority

over some pesticides that could be used against screwworm, said

Jeff Simmons, CEO of the animal health company Elanco.

Elanco has been closely involved in the preparations and two

of the company's fast-tracked drugs are being sent to a USDA

stockpile in Texas, Simmons said.

"It is something that we were preparing for, expecting - it

was probably a matter of if, not when," Simmons said.

The animal health arm of biopharmaceutical company Merck ( MRK )

has also worked closely with the USDA and Texas animal

health officials over the past year to prepare for potential

screwworm cases, and received conditional approval from the FDA

for its topical screwworm treatment in December, said Justin

Welsh, executive director of livestock technical services.

Welsh said the USDA response has been proactive, but that he

expects to see more cases emerge.

"It's safe to say we'll see it continue to spread, but

hopefully very slowly," Welsh said.

SHORT ON FLIES, FEWER STAFF

The USDA is facing a shortage of one of its key tools

against screwworm flies - sterile male flies that breed with

females, halting reproduction. The USDA is building a facility

to produce more sterile flies in Texas, but it is not expected

to open until late 2027.

The USDA is deploying 100 million sterile flies produced

weekly at a plant in Panama, though officials have said many

millions more are needed to beat back the pest.

"We don't have enough (flies) to do the complete push, but

we do have enough to manage ... the growth of the development of

it in Texas," said the USDA's undersecretary for research, Scott

Hutchins, at the Monday press conference.

The agency has also seen a significant drop in animal health

response staff since the start of Trump's second term.

According to the USDA's Office of Inspector General, more

than 2,100 staff left the USDA's Animal and Plant Health

Inspection Service between January and June 2025, about 25%

attrition.

A group of Democratic senators wrote in a Tuesday letter to

Rollins and her deputy secretary, Stephen Vaden, that staff

reductions at APHIS and other USDA agencies could hamper the

agency's screwworm response.

"The reemergence of the New World screwworm in the U.S.

highlights the urgent need to fully staff the USDA's Services,

which are on the frontlines of disease outbreak detection and

rapid response to dangerous threats to agricultural security,"

said the letter from Oregon Senator Jeff Merkley and 10 others.

Rollins told the Senate Agriculture Committee that the

reduced staff has not affected the agency's screwworm response.

Veterinarians like those employed by APHIS are key to the

screwworm response because they work with local, state and

federal officials to observe and advise on suspected cases and

guide the response, said Michael Bailey, a veterinarian and

president of the American Veterinary Medical Association.

"We don't have enough veterinarians in those public health

areas to begin with, and anything that leads to them leaving the

government, any area of government, is going to have a negative

impact," Bailey said.