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Thursday, March 18, 2010

Ticked

by Julian Aguilar
February 1, 2010  |  1

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Since 2003, there has been a 750 percent increase in fever-tick infestations in South Texas, according to a report by the U.S. Department of Agriculture: There were 19 confirmed cases back then but 146 in 2009. It’s the worst situation in 37 years.

The war between the tick — which carries an anemia-causing parasite that preys on cattle blood cells and bloats cattle organs, oftentimes leading to their inevitable death — and the ranchers and government officials charged with thwarting its migration past the permanent quarantine or “buffer” zone has lasted more than a century. The permanent zone stretches roughly ...

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Comments (1)

  • uterra wrote on 2/7/2010 11:57 a.m.

    The writer should have talked with Texas and Southwestern Cattle Raisers Association. For more than 125 years, this group has led the effort to contain fever ticks. Its members have basically kept both species of fever tick contained effectively by advocating policy and enacting these policies every day of the year. Their work has been what has kept tick fever from being a national headline long before this web page discovered the disease. The Independent Cattlemen's Association is a nice little Central Texas cattle group but has very little history of advocacy on babesiosis and very little national or international influence.