When prevention works perfectly, nobody notices. That invisibility is precisely why funding for disease control quietly erodes, until suddenly a threat that was eliminated decades ago comes roaring back. This is the story unfolding right now across two continents, where screwworms have returned to Texas for the first time since the early 1980s, and bird flu is decimating Australian wildlife. Both outbreaks reveal the same uncomfortable truth: the infrastructure that keeps dangerous pathogens at bay requires constant, sustained investment, or it collapses.

What Happened to Screwworms in Texas?

In June 2026, the United States detected New World screwworms overland in Texas, marking the first mainland U.S. detection in over 40 years. According to researchers publishing in Nature Ecology and Evolution, this re-emergence is not a failure of science, but rather a failure of funding. Sterile fly production and surveillance systems that had successfully eliminated screwworms lapsed during the COVID-19 pandemic. A disease control front that had been pushed south over 47 years rebounded to the Texas border in just three years.

The screwworm is a parasitic fly whose larvae burrow into the flesh of living animals, causing severe wounds and, if untreated, death. While human infection is comparatively rare, the economic toll on livestock and companion animals is enormous, and wildlife carry the largest burden in terms of actual disease and mortality. Eliminating screwworms from the U.S. requires long-term, active effort to keep them at bay, meaning infrastructure that must be funded, staffed, and defended indefinitely. Anything short of sustained investment leads to continual re-emergence and subsequent animal and financial losses.

How Is Bird Flu Threatening Australian Wildlife?

Half a world away, Australia confirmed its first mass wildlife mortality from H5N1 bird flu earlier this week after more than 80 dead and sick greater crested terns were found on an island off South Australia's southeast coast. Seventy-four cases have been confirmed nationally since June, mostly in South Australia, but fortunately no farms have yet been affected.

In response to these detections, the Australian government performed a risk assessment to understand the potential impact on the country's native birds and mammals. More than 2,000 species were evaluated and ranked from low to high risk based on their vulnerability and susceptibility, considering their habitat, ecology, behavior, and information from global outbreaks. The results are sobering: five seabirds, including the critically endangered Herald petrel, face extreme risk, meaning likely extinction if the virus reaches them. More than 80 threatened species rank high or worse. Tasmanian devils, eastern quolls, and several marine mammals would probably survive infection but with severely reduced populations.

Vaccination could theoretically protect some species, but it requires two doses, which is impractical, if not impossible, in wild flocks. Trials are therefore focused on captive breeding facilities, a limited approach that cannot protect the broader wildlife population.

Why Prevention Fails When Nobody Is Watching

Both the screwworm and bird flu situations illustrate a fundamental problem in public health: prevention is invisible when it works. A sterile fly plant running at capacity and a seabird colony free of rats produce no headlines. This invisibility is precisely why the funding behind them erodes quietly. The gaps go unnoticed until they explode open, and by then the cost of response will be orders of magnitude higher than the sustained maintenance would have been.

"We won't be able to stop bird flu spreading through wildlife, so the best response to that needs to be dealing with all the other threats. The foxes, the cats, the rats on islands, making sure wetlands are well connected, that we're not seeing habitat destruction occurring in key nesting areas; that work hasn't been happening at a scale which reflects the seriousness of this list," noted Jack Gough, CEO of the Invasive Species Council.

Jack Gough, CEO, Invasive Species Council

How to Strengthen Disease Prevention Infrastructure

• Sustained Funding Commitment: Governments must commit to long-term, predictable funding for disease surveillance and control systems, recognizing that these investments prevent far costlier emergency responses down the road.
• Integrated One Health Approach: Disease prevention requires coordination across human health, animal health, and environmental sectors, since pathogens like screwworms and bird flu affect livestock, wildlife, and people simultaneously.
• Continuous Monitoring and Staffing: Prevention infrastructure requires permanent staffing and operational capacity, not just equipment; gaps in surveillance or sterile fly production create windows for disease re-emergence.
• Public Communication About Invisible Wins: Health agencies should regularly communicate the value of prevention successes to policymakers and the public, making the invisible visible so that funding does not erode during quiet periods.

The screwworm and bird flu outbreaks are not anomalies; they are warnings. Both diseases had been controlled through sustained, coordinated effort. Both re-emerged when that effort was relaxed. The lesson is clear: prevention requires constant vigilance and funding, even when nothing bad is happening. The moment we stop paying attention is the moment the disease comes back.