Texas Animal Health Commission Attempts to Corral Fever Ticks
TEXAS - The feared pest, fever ticks have officials with the Texas Animal Health Commission on alert.
23 October 2007
1 minute read
"The annual loss to the cattle industry of Texas would approach $1.3 billion dollars,"
A Beef-Cattle Clinician at Texas A&M's Veterinary School
In recent months, the ticks were found in Dimmit, Maverick, Starr, Zapata, and Webb counties.
The insects are prevalent in Mexico and within the 500-mile “permanent quarantine zone" along the Rio Grande from Del Rio to Brownsville.
The discovery of infestations outside the so-called “buffer-zone” demanded immediate action by the TAHC, and officials set up temporary fever tick quarantines to contain the ticks.
If the ticks are somehow able to travel any farther north Steve Wiske, a Beef-Cattle Clinician at Texas A&M's Veterinary School, says the $6.5 billion dollar cattle industry could suffer drastically.
"The annual loss to the cattle industry of Texas would approach $1.3 billion dollars," Wikse said.
Wiske says the increase in fever tick numbers is due in part to wildlife and stray cattle crossing over from Mexico.
He also says recent weather patterns could be to blame.
"The usual high rainfall that we had this spring going into the summer, it's been very good conditions for the replication of the cattle fever tick," Wiske.
