U.S. Food and Restaurants: Still no cowbell? A conversation about beef and screwworms with Kevin Shea and Erica Theisen

Research evidence excerpt

U.S. Food and Restaurants: Still no cowbell? A conversation about beef and screwworms with Kevin Shea and Erica Theisen

16 July 2026

U.S. Food and Restaurants

U.S. Food and Restaurants: Still no cowbell? A conversation

about beef and screwworms with Kevin Shea and Erica Theisen

As part of the ongoing discussions on beef, the protein supply chain, and the resurgence Alexia Howard

+1 917 344 8453 of New World screwworm, we hosted a conversation with Kevin Shea, former APHIS

alexia.howard@bernsteinsg.com administrator and longtime USDA animal health policy expert, and Erica Theisen, a multi-

generational cattle operator with operations in Tennessee and South Texas. The discussion

Danilo Gargiulo focused on the history of screwworm eradication in the U.S., why the pest has re-emerged,

+1 917 344 8475

danilo.gargiulo@bernsteinsg.com the implications for ranchers and the broader beef supply chain, and the structural factors

keeping U.S. beef prices elevated.

Cinnie Lin

+1 917 344 8567 For more detail, please see our beef primer (U.S. Food and Restaurants: Beef primer - will

cinnie.lin@bernsteinsg.com there ever be more cowbell?) and our previous conversation from earlier this year with Dr.

Josh Maples, an Associate Professor of Agricultural Economics at Mississippi State University

(A discussion of the cattle supply outlook with Dr. Josh Maples (Webinar Transcript)). Below

are our takeaways, while the note contains an edited transcript that reflects the views of the

experts interviewed, unless otherwise stated.

We left the conversation with greater conviction that beef prices will remain

elevated for a while. The experts emphasized how the current state of herd size, which

has reached 60-year low, is unlikely to expand given that (1) land has become more