Throughout 2025, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (DoA) was raising the alarm about the northward spread of a parasitic screwworm outbreak in Central America. Eradicated in America in 1966, the New World Screwworm has been gaining ground in Mexico. In late January, the confirmed proximity of the parasite to the U.S. border led the Governor of Texas, Greg Abbott, to declare a state of disaster to accelerate preparations to protect against the threat of $1.8 billion in damage to the state alone, as estimated by the DoA.

“For Texas, this is not a routine animal health issue,” Martin Jefferson, Globalstar Global Solutions Architect, told Orbital Today. In partnership with CERES TAG, which has recently expanded to the US from its native Brisbane, the satellite technology company has been tracking the crisis from orbit as it’s unfolded.