USDA will reopen the Santa Teresa, New Mexico port to Mexican cattle on Sept. 24, Secretary Brooke Rollins said at a press conference. The port handled nearly 500,000 cattle in 2024, about 40% of the country’s cattle imports from Mexico, per Bloomberg.
The US suspended Mexican livestock imports in May 2025 to prevent the spread of New World screwworm. USDA has since phased in port reopenings as it monitors the disease. The Douglas, Arizona, port reopened in late August and has processed more than 6,000 cattle since, according to USDA data.
The agency is also assessing its Nogales, Arizona, location, along with the Columbus, New Mexico, port, for a possible reopening.
“All the boxes have been checked,” Rollins said of Santa Teresa’s readiness. “We feel really good about all the protocols that are in place.”
That confidence traces to the disease trend. Only two screwworm cases remain active in Texas. The outbreak has produced fewer than 50 US cases since it was first detected in June, while nearly 2,000 cases are still active in Mexico. USDA is dispersing sterile male flies to curb the pest and has a larger production facility planned for Texas by spring 2027, on top of a dispersal facility already underway in Arizona. “We’re not yet at eradication, I want to make sure everyone understands that,” Rollins said.
Mexico shipped more than 1 million head of cattle a year to the US before the border closed. The lost supply has left meatpackers short of animals to keep plants running. Tyson Foods has cut its annual outlook twice in the past month.
