“USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service’s decision to make additional funds available will help provide more resources in the fight against fever tick outbreaks.  Last summer, TSCRA requested that USDA release and the Office of Management and Budget approve $13 million for the Cattle Fever Tick Eradication Program.  We will continue the push for more funding.

“Left uncontrolled, the pests could spread the fever throughout the nation’s cow herd, resulting in losses of $1 billion a year to our industry and rising food costs for consumers,” said Means.

Fever ticks can carry and transmit a tiny parasite that causes “cattle tick fever,” a disease that can kill up to 90 percent of infected cattle.  The ticks once extended across the southeastern United States from the Atlantic coast around to the Gulf Coast and into Texas and Oklahoma.

The Texas Animal Health Commission (TAHC) was established in 1893 to fight the disease. Since 1943, cattle tick fever has been eradicated from the United States, except for a permanent quarantine zone that was established in 1938 along the Rio Grande River in south Texas.

The permanent quarantine zone covers 852 square miles through eight south Texas counties.  Due to recent increased infestations, the TAHC has imposed additional temporary quarantines covering 1,100 square miles across the counties of Starr, Zapata, Maverick, Dimmit and Webb to contain the pests and the disease.

Texas and Southwestern Cattle Raisers Association is a 131-year-old trade organization whose 15,000 members manage approximately 3.7 million cattle on 96.5 million acres of range and pasture land, primarily in Texas and Oklahoma.  TSCRA provides law enforcement services, livestock inspection, legislative and regulatory advocacy and education opportunities for its members.