USDA Puts Nearly $2 Million Toward Fighting Four Growing Pest and Disease Threats
Some of the biggest threats to agriculture are small enough to hide behind a leaf. Or infiltrate our very cells. Others can cause devastating wounds in livestock.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture is putting nearly $2 million toward four projects aimed at responding with greater efficiency and haste to emerging pests and diseases impacting crops and animals.
The National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) announced the funding Sept. 16 through its Rapid Response to Emerging and Re-emerging Pest and Disease Events program.
The project sees involvement from Texas A&M AgriLife Research, the University of Georgia, Vectech and the University of California, Davis. Their targets include: an invasive thrips, cotton jassid, a strawberry pathogen and New World screwworm.
Two Invasive Insects Are Already Turning Up On Plants
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Insect pests pose a very real threat to American agriculture. Supported by NIFA, researchers across the nation are working to find effective methods to manage established, returning and emerging agricultural pests: https://t.co/nOydUcAHkg pic.twitter.com/4q8mmJr9iK
— NIFA (@USDA_NIFA) September 10, 2026
Texas A&M’s project will focus on Thrips parvispinus, sometimes also referred to as short-spined thrips. The invasive insect can attack peppers, hibiscus, and various specialty crops. The USDA’s Agricultural Marketing Service defines specialty crops as fruits, vegetables, tree nuts, dried fruit, and nursery crops that are cultivated for food, medicinal, or aesthetic purposes.
In Dec. 2025, Texas A&M AgriLife reported the pest in Texas. This reporting occurred after specimens collected from hibiscus and pepper plants in Dallas were confirmed as T. parvispinus. The university describes it as “a highly destructive invasive pest” that represented a “significant challenge” to the United States after its range expanded to include Florida in 2020-2021.
Meanwhile, the University of Georgia will study the invasive cotton jassid and assess methods of measuring plant injury and identify resistance.
Despite its name, cotton jassid does not limit itself to cotton. UGA Cooperative Extension warned home gardeners this summer to watch for the insect on okra. Feeding can cause yellowing, browning, wilting, and curling, known also as “hopperburn.”
Strawberries and Livestock Are Also Part of This Sweeping Initiative
UC Davis received funding for work involving Colletotrichum gloeosporioides on cultivated strawberries. The fungus is associated with anthracnose, a disease that can damage fruit and plant tissue.
The fourth arm of this project takes the response beyond plants. Vectech will work on an artificial-intelligence screening tool designed to improve detection of New World screwworm. Its larvae feed on living tissue and can seriously injure livestock, pets and wildlife.
That parasite actually returned to the United States this year. The USDA Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service confirmed the first 2026 U.S. case in a Texas calf on June 3.
NIFA says its rapid-response program is meant to close information gaps, as well as safeguard the country’s food and agricultural supply chains. The program also aims to get practical research and Extension tools into use while a new threat is still emerging. These four grants put that approach to work against problems that have already begun showing up in American fields, gardens, and animals.
