Gov. Greg Abbott told Texans on Friday there is "no food safety issue" tied to the first U.S. detection of the New World screwworm in decades, signing an expanded statewide disaster declaration that pulls every arm of state government into the fight against a parasite threatening the country's largest cattle industry.

As of Friday evening, the only confirmed case remains a three-week-old calf in Zavala County, near the Mexican border.

At a news conference in Austin, Abbott drew a clean line between contamination and supply.

"What we're dealing with is an infestation of animals; however, there is no food safety issue," he said.

"There's a food production issue, but not a food safety issue."

The screwworm fly does not infect meat, and federal inspectors keep affected animals out of the food chain, but a sustained outbreak would cut into herds and push beef prices higher.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service confirmed the detection June 3 after testing a sample from La Pryor at the agency's National Veterinary Services Laboratories in Ames, Iowa.

Larvae were found in the calf's umbilical area.

USDA has drawn a 20-kilometer quarantine zone around the site, barring movement of warm-blooded animals without inspection, while the Texas Animal Health Commission set an infested zone covering parts of Zavala and Uvalde counties.

Abbott's Friday order expands a January declaration that had covered only the two affected counties, reassigning resources statewide and making university personnel available to accelerate sterile fly shipments and speed construction of a federal production plant in Edinburg, Texas.

Funded by a $750 million USDA investment and built with the Army Corps of Engineers at Moore Air Force Base, the facility is designed to release up to 300 million sterile flies per week, but is not scheduled to open until fall 2027.

Abbott said he had offered Texas A&M and state agencies to run construction "24 hours a day, seven days a week" to move that timeline up.

The governor told ranchers the parasite is manageable if caught early.

"This is a highly treatable condition if acted on quickly, whether it be for someone's pets or someone's cattle," Abbott said.

"Constant contact with your veterinarian is very important."

He urged pet owners with outdoor animals to watch for untreated wounds, and closed with a confidence note: "The bottom line is Texas is resilient, and our producers, veterinarians, and state officials are among the very best in the United States."

During the public portion of his briefing, Abbott also called the broader response inadequate and said the pest can spread like wildfire, though he offered no specifics afterward.

The economic stakes are concentrated in South Texas but national in reach.

Texas anchors a $15 billion state cattle industry, and a USDA estimate cited by the Texas Tribune puts potential economic damage from a potential outbreak at $1.8 billion.