Pest Control Central
USDA opens state-of-the-art insects research laboratory to combat livestock pests.
June 3, 2026
by USDA
The USDA Agricultural Research Service (ARS) on May 27, 2026, opened the Knipling-Bushland U.S. Livestock Insects Research Laboratory, a state-of-the-art laboratory that will provide the U.S. cattle industry with innovative tools and advanced technologies to manage and eliminate the invasive fly and tick pests that threaten the U.S. cattle industry.
“The brand new Knipling-Bushland U.S. Livestock Insects Research Laboratory will allow us to research and find new active measures to keep current and future threats away from our borders,” said U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins. “We have taken extraordinary actions to keep New World screwworm (NWS) out of the United States, and this lab will help us accelerate our offensive efforts to drive this pest further away from our borders.”
“For the last 250 years, our nation has relied on research leading to science-based innovation as a means to overcome some of America’s greatest agricultural challenges, including the exclusion of New World screwworm from the United States with novel sterile insect techniques,” said Scott Hutchins, USDA undersecretary for research, education and economics. “The Knipling-Bushland U.S. Livestock Insects Research Laboratory — named after ARS pioneers that every entomologist and entomology student knows of through their breakthrough work — will build on their legacy by protecting livestock health, ensuring that America’s ranches remain productive, safe and profitable for generations to come.”
The 52,000-square-foot laboratory features cutting-edge laboratory spaces, advanced cattle facilities and a state-of-the-art genomics core to drive research that delivers innovative control technologies for the U.S. livestock industry. Other on-site research opportunities will involve improved surveillance and trapping tools, novel insecticides and acaricides, enhanced pesticide delivery techniques for cattle and wildlife, sustainable treatments to prevent and mitigate outbreaks of invasive/quarantine arthropod species, improved approaches to combat pesticide resistance, and insect genomics to identify pest vulnerabilities.
The facility also houses two ARS research units: the Livestock Arthropod Pest Research Unit and the Veterinary Pest Genetics Research Unit. Collectively, these units improve the health, sustainability and profitability of U.S. livestock production and protect the U.S food supply from devastating arthropod pests, including biting flies, ticks and the NWS. On-site research also plays a role in critical research to eradicate other ticks and blood-feeding flies that can harm, infect and kill cattle.
“This new laboratory will equip our researchers with advanced tools to combat the most destructive invasive insects already impacting the United States, as well as those posing future threats at our borders,” said ARS Administrator Joon Park. “The important ARS research conducted here in Kerrville will continue to play a vital role in protecting and strengthening the future of the U.S. cattle industry.”
This is a full-circle moment due to the 80 years of historic research done at previous ARS laboratory facilities in the Kerrville area.
“This new laboratory will equip our researchers with advanced tools to combat the most destructive invasive insects already impacting the United States, as well as those posing future threats at our borders.” — Joon Park
This includes:
- research on the biology of control of NWS that led to its eradication from the United States in the 1970s;
- development and evaluation of novel pesticides like macrocyclic lactones for controlling biting flies and ticks on cattle and wildlife; and
- sequencing the genome of more than 25 important livestock arthropod pest species.
The laboratory is named after two influential and pioneering USDA researchers: Edward Knipling and Raymond Bushland. In 1937, Knipling first developed the theory that screwworms could be controlled using the sterile male technique. In the early 1950s, Bushland successfully demonstrated that the theory worked, that viable sterile male screwworms could be produced and used to control screwworm populations.
This biocontrol technique, known as sterile insect technique (SIT), became the keystone component of the strategy that eventually led to the eradication of the screwworm from the United States, Mexico and Central America. Nearly 80 years later, SIT is still being employed to fight NWS in Mexico and Central America in an effort to keep the devastating insect from reestablishing itself once again in the United States.
The ARS is the USDA’s chief scientific in-house research agency.
Editor’s note: This article is provided by USDA. [Lead photo courtesy USDA.]
Angus Beef Bulletin EXTRA, Vol. 18, No. 6-A
Topics: Events , Health , Industry News , News
Publication: Angus Beef Bulletin
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