Livestock health problems a constant; successful 'turn arounds' make the difference

By MONETTE TAYLOR | South Central Texas Edition

August 15, 2002 -- Producers have faced health issues with their animals, forever, but in 1893, with the creation of the Texas Livestock Sanitary Commission by Robert Kleberg, bad situations and diseases were formally addressed and often "turned around."

Addressing livestock health issues at the 48th annual A&M Beef Cattle Short Course, Dr. Linda Logan, executive director of the Texas Animal Health Commission (TAHC), informed producers that Texas is actually bordered by eight states: four in the United States, and four in Mexico. All offer the opportunity to invade Texas with infected animals, unless there are laws and rules in place.

As long as 1.3 million people enter the United States, daily, animal health professionals must remain vigilant, she said. Every day, American citizens who have been traveling out of the country, along with foreign visitors, can accidentally bring in disease on their clothing or shoes. Terrorists can bring these same problems, but intentionally.

"Animal diseases have long been used as non-tariff trade barriers," said Logan. In Texas, the livestock industry is second only to the petroleum industry.

Boophilus ticks, which caused Babesiosis or Texas fever, was the first problem documented by the 1893 Texas Livestock Sanitary Commission.

Experts came up with a dip which would kill most of the ticks, but producers were not happy. Logan said on one night, as legend has it, 67 dipping vats were blown up, people were shot at and even pushed into the vats by unhappy producers.

"Not every rancher appreciated the export markets," she laughed.

By 1943, the ticks were gone, except for a small area of South Texas. To this day, there are still 18 Mexican states with ticks that are resistant to the dip, Logan said, so she urged producers to be vigilant in examining their animals.

Brucellosis is another livestock health problem in Texas and Missouri, although programs to eradicate the problem have been in effect for over a decade. Ten years ago, there were 810 herds affected. Today, there are only three in Texas, and those showed up just last year, Logan said.

She also pointed out that many of the problems have developed from producers who were really not interested in ranching, but getting the ag exemption from the land they purchased.

"The way the federal rules go, you have to be free of Brucellosis for a set time before you can apply for freedom," she said.

When a state is on "the list," the entire market in that state must be tested for three to five years.

"The issue that has been very different for us is Tuberculosis (TB)," said Logan.

With the discovery of two herds of cattle diagnosed with TB, Texas lost its "free state" designation on June 3, 2002.

In November 2000, new laws and rules went into affect with the USDA concerning TB. The USDA predicts the cost to become a TB-free state, again, would be between $260 to $788 million (within the next five to 10 years).

Logan said the USDA hadn't been paying much attention to TB, due to the other illnesses, such as foot-and-mouth disease, "mad cow" disease, e-coli, and drug residue issues, to mention a few.

The TAHC executive director pointed out there are approximately 153,000 herds in Texas, and two infected herds represents only 1.3 head per 100,000 cattle. She and others are asking for USDA to reconsider the "punishment," and she urged producers to make their feelings known to the USDA by the end of August, if they want to be heard.

Mexican-origin cattle seem to have presented the biggest TB problem to Texas. When cattle were checked at slaughter, recently, 63 of 66 "positives" were of Mexican origin.

Now, Mexican cattle are being tested in Mexico, at the border, and held in quarantine for 60-120 days and then tested a third time before being allowed into the state.

Obviously, West Nile Virus is at the top of everyone's concern. The vector-borne virus that is carried by mosquitoes was discovered in Katy in early June, and has made it's way to the Austin and Dallas areas at press time.

"This could be a threat to the equine industry, particularly, here in Texas where we have the largest equine industry in the U.S.," said Logan.

In conclusion, Logan said she feels more secure about animal health issues since TAHC was included in the Texas Emergency Response Team, and in case of terroristic threats, Texas should be ready. The main issues with the team will be to prevent, prepare, respond, and recover.