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| Ithought about ya Williegoat when I saw this tick rider's 'mustache' (Page 1/2) |
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maryjane
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MAY 22, 08:27 PM
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2.5
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MAY 23, 02:54 PM
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Nice!
I had to look up tick rider. Wow. It is that bad, or close to being that bad eh?
"USDA has successfully eradicated cattle fever in the U.S. Only a permanent quarantine buffer zone remains in south Texas, which spans 500 miles from Del Rio to Brownsville. The ticks and disease remain well-established in Mexico, so the buffer zone is necessary to keep U.S. cattle free of cattle fever by preventing the re-establishment of the ticks."
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maryjane
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MAY 23, 03:23 PM
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Tick fever was a terrible problem in the late 1800s thru early 1930s. I can remember seeing signs in the late 1950s stating "tick fever inspection station ahead". Mexico has no interest whatsoever in eradicating those ticks from their herds. Ticks are just the carrier or vector of a parasite called Babesia microti, and cattle the carrier of the ticks. Deer are the major vector of the same thing in the NE USA.
Like any other pathogen, it is much easier to prevent a problem than trying to get rid of it after it appears.
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Patrick
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MAY 23, 04:59 PM
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| quote | Originally posted by maryjane:
Meet the tick riders of south Texas
"Vela said the livestock on the Mexico side of the river is immune to the disease the ticks carry. But the livestock on this side of the river aren’t, and there’s no vaccine."
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What makes the Mexican cattle immune to the disease?
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maryjane
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MAY 24, 01:48 PM
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Decades (over a century) of exposure to the protozoan that is the real cause of the illness.
A bit of history on it.
https://www.tshaonline.org/.../entries/texas-fever
Texas cattle driven North from very near the border were healthy but carried the ticks that harbored the protozoan. The farther from the border the cattle were driven (this was still in the days of cattle drives and mass rail transport) the more likely local or regional cattle would suffer from the infections. Texas go the reputation for it, just as Spain didfor the big flu pandemic of the early 1900s but the real location source was Mexico and North central America.
I have frequently seen these signs in my lifetime and even as recently as 2003 when I was down in Southwest Texas.
In the National Forest where I used to live , there are still the remnants of East Texas tick fever years. My previous home was 360 miles from the nearest Mexican border. The USDA and Texas Forest Service built dozens of dip vats to run cattle thru in the days of open range there in East Texas. (Open range in that county only ended in the very late 60s or very early 70s). You still occasionally run across one of the old dip vats in the national forests of East Texas and other deep south states. They look like this now:
Lucky (for the most part) to be old enough to have seen them used and to have seen real cattle roundups. As my father once told me in reference to my old oilfield drilling days,"You're only 1/2 generation removed from the days of iron men and wooden derricks".[This message has been edited by maryjane (edited 05-24-2022).]
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williegoat
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MAY 24, 05:01 PM
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| quote | Originally posted by maryjane:
As my father once told me in reference to my old oilfield drilling days,"You're only 1/2 generation removed from the days of iron men and wooden derricks".
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Patrick
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MAY 25, 05:50 PM
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| quote | Originally posted by maryjane:
Decades (over a century) of exposure to the protozoan that is the real cause of the illness. A bit of history on it...
Texas Fever
"Northern cattle imported to the South for breeding purposes could be immunized by receiving injections of small amounts of blood from infected animals."
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That was quite interesting. Question... I don't understand why the cattle in the States couldn't have been immunized in this (or a similar) manner?[This message has been edited by Patrick (edited 05-25-2022).]
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82-T/A [At Work]
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MAY 25, 06:36 PM
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| quote | Originally posted by maryjane:
In the National Forest where I used to live , there are still the remnants of East Texas tick fever years. My previous home was 360 miles from the nearest Mexican border. The USDA and Texas Forest Service built dozens of dip vats to run cattle thru in the days of open range there in East Texas. (Open range in that county only ended in the very late 60s or very early 70s). You still occasionally run across one of the old dip vats in the national forests of East Texas and other deep south states. They look like this now:
Lucky (for the most part) to be old enough to have seen them used and to have seen real cattle roundups. As my father once told me in reference to my old oilfield drilling days,"You're only 1/2 generation removed from the days of iron men and wooden derricks".
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Hah, that's pretty cool... I love seeing that kind of stuff... old derelict stuff from times past.
As a kid (who basically grew up in the city like Washington D.C. and Stamford)... I always thought of this move whenever I heard about cattle drives and cattle roundups:
I never did get that "chuck wagon" dinner MJ... I tried... but any time my daughter was off from school, they weren't doing the chuck wagon thing. I may go back to Palo Duro again one year and see if I can do the whole shebang before my daughter is old enough to no longer want to be seen with her dad.
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maryjane
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MAY 27, 10:51 AM
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| quote | Originally posted by Patrick:
That was quite interesting. Question... I don't understand why the cattle in the States couldn't have been immunized in this (or a similar) manner?
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They are vaccinated for it, but the disease is such that even a single report of it in one state, and that state will lose it's bangs free certification.
This, is a HUGE thing.
Vaccines aren't 100% effective, and in the SW USA, the Pacific NW and on the Gulf Coastal marsh country, the cattle run on square miles of rough rangeland that is often BLM or other govt public land. You never know if you have rounded up every single cow and calf because you have no idea how many calves were actually born each year. All it takes is one and the whole herd gets branded with a S (suspect) and a metal tag inserted in their left ear. every animal in the herd, as well as any in a herd separated only by a barbed wire fence has to be tested and branded. Positive tests result in a B branded on them on their left hip up near the tailhead (which is better than the B that used to have to go on their left jaw)
"Banging out" as we call it, is the kiss of death. The animals go directly to slaughter with a huge pile of paperwork and bring only a few cents per lb (usually 5-10cents) and only at designated sale facilities.
Not as bad as the Hoof and mouth debacle of the early 1/2 of the 20th century (see the movie Hud) but still a serioius problem. Currently, all 50states are bangs free except a few counties in Texas, and the Greater Yellowstone region of Wyoming, Montana and Idaho.
The Texas Dept of Ag regs on Brucellosis is pages long as is the one from Aphis/USDA.
The major symptom of Bangs is aborted calves in the first 3 months of infection but after that 1st one , the cow calves normally, but is giving birth to infected calves.. Otherwise, the animals are mostly asymtomatic unless they are serum tested.
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Patrick
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MAY 27, 04:25 PM
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| quote | Originally posted by maryjane:
They are vaccinated for it, but...
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Thanks for the explanation, Don. It's great to be able to hear about these type of things directly from someone involved in the industry.
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