Mounted patrol officers, known as tick riders, who typically patrol the southern border to protect cattle from fever tick, will also now serve as the first line of defense against screwworm.

The U.S. government will breed billions of sterile flies at a South Texas fly factory to battle a flesh-eating maggot capable of decimating the state’s cattle industry. Construction will begin on a $750 million facility in the Rio Grande Valley town of Edinburg,