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| Domestic Ticks Can Carry Deadly Livestock Disease |
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Domestic Ticks Can Carry Deadly Livestock Disease Submit Ticks for "Mapping," Emergency Preparedness. For years, ranchers, veterinarians and livestock health officials have been vigilant for foreign ticks capable of carrying dangerous animal diseases.
That's not enough, admonishes Dr. Pete Teel, a Texas A&M University tick specialist who says Texas' homegrown ticks also could transmit deadly infections. "If infected tropical bont ticks from the Caribbean introduced heartwater into Texas, our native Gulf Coast tick could become infected, making disease eradication extremely, if not nearly impossible, to wipe out," said Dr. Teel. He described heartwater as an acute and usually fatal tick-borne disease that affects ruminants--cud-chewing animals such as cows, sheep, goats and deer. Dr. Teel is building a database and "mapping" the migration of native ticks, particularly the Gulf Coast tick. He pointed out that this tick lived only 50-100 miles inland until the l960s, when it was detected in Kansas and Oklahoma. Since then, it has been found in 50 of Oklahoma's 77 counties, and in 19 of Kansas' 105 counties. "We can fight an outbreak of a tick-borne disease more effectively, if we know where susceptible ticks live," said Dr. Teel. He urged livestock producers, veterinarians and others to send tick specimens for identification to the state federal laboratory of the Texas Animal Health Commission (TAHC), the state's livestock health regulatory agency. "Adult Gulf Coast ticks, which prefer animals' head and ear regions, appear in June, and populations peak from August through October," he said. "It's "prime time" for collection and submission." He reminded ranchers to check not only domestic livestock, but exotic hoofstock as well. Feral hogs, he noted, also are notorious tick "toters," known to carry Gulf Coast, Lone Star and American dog ticks. Free "ectoparasite collection vials" or submission kits for ticks and maggots (worms) are available from TAHC inspectors or TAHC area offices (see phone list at end of story), feed stores, county agents or veterinarians. The kits, which include a short questionnaire, are pre-addressed and may be mailed at no cost. Laboratory staff will identify the ticks, and if necessary, forward the specimen to other federal laboratories for further examination. If submitters provide a return address, a report will be provided. Dr. Teel said heartwater disease was confined to Africa until 1830, when cattle carrying infected ticks were shipped to the Caribbean. Also migrating were cattle egrets. These birds "hang out" with grazing cows and have airlifted ticks to at least 15 islands. Dr. Teel said that statistics indicate five out of 50 Caribbean egrets carry at least 10 tropical bont ticks, some of which could transmit heartwater. Researchers during l988-l991 tracked 720 dye-marked egrets from Antigua and 303 marked birds from Guadeloupe. The birds traveled among 14 islands, and one Guadeloupe-origin bird was spotted in the Florida Keys. To become involved in a heartwater disease outbreak, Texas' native Gulf Coast tick, must be exposed as a larvae or nymph (baby stage) and transmit infection in the next phase of its three-host lifecycle. Although young Gulf Coast ticks typically feed on ground-dwelling birds, Dr. Teel said immature ticks also can feed on cattle. If they select a heartwater-infected animal, the ticks would become infected and transmit the disease to its next host, setting up a disastrous scenario. "International livestock movements give us reason for concern about tick-borne diseases like heartwater," said Dr. Teel. A black rhinoceros shipped to Texas in the late l980s, he said, was found to be carrying a potential vector of heartwater. In l989, African-imported ostriches arrived infested with Hyalomma ticks, efficient vectors for a variety of diseases. Recently in Florida, a number of imported reptiles and tortoises have sported a variety of foreign ticks, he said. "The introduction of a tick-borne disease like heartwater is always a possibility," said Dr. Teel. "We must be prepared to fight a foreign animal disease, that could be spread farther by our own pests." TAHC Area Offices
Area 1-Amarillo 1-800-658-6526
For more information, call Carla Everett,
Texas Animal Health Commission |