For the first time in nearly 60 years, the New World Screwworm has been found in the United States. Agriculture officials say they found the deadly bug in a calf in Texas.
Could this invasive bug cause already record-high beef prices to jump even higher.
"Very likely," Louisiana Agriculture Commissioner Mike Strain said.
Strain told WWL's Tommy Tucker that the fear of a screwworm outbreak will send prices higher, even if beef supplies aren't immediately impacted.
"It's not going to have an initial negative effect on supply, only if it gets out of control," Strain said. "You will have some market instability in the next week or two because you're going to have speculators get in on the Chicago Board of Trade and others."
According to Strain, consumers ultimately will pay for the effort to keep the screwworm from spreading farther into the United States.
"You're going to have costs by the farmers on the preventative side," Strain said, adding that price hikes will be temporary as long as ranchers and ag officials alike do their jobs to keep the screwworm contained. "At the end of the day, if we can hold it, if we can contain it, if we can deal with it, it will not have a long-term effect on beef prices. If we fail to do so, it will have a negative impact, meaning it will drive up the price of beef."
