By Emmy Powell
Communications Specialist

A team of researchers from Texas A&M AgriLife is working on an interactive, computer-based tool to help identify risks to prevent or mitigate cattle fever tick infestations.

The three-year project is using data from the U.S. Cattle Fever Tick Eradication Program.

The project is funded with a $600,000 grant from U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA), Agricultural Biosecurity Program and funded by the Agriculture and Food Research Initiative.

An advisory group for the project, Agricultural Biosecurity: Harnessing Data Fusion to Meet Emerging Challenges to Cattle Fever Tick Eradication in a Changing World, includes representatives from the USDA Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service’s (APHIS) Veterinary Services, the Texas Animal Health Commission and the regulatory agencies in charge of the U.S. Cattle Fever Tick Eradication Program.

“The cattle fever tick issue is a constant challenge for Texas,” Texas A&M AgriLife Research Regents Professor Pete Teel said. “It has a considerable history related to the development, security and sustainability of the cattle industry, and not just in the U.S. because of our international boundary with Mexico.”

Fever ticks have been an issue in the U.S. since the early 1900s. Two tick species, Rhipicephalus annulatus and Rhipicephalus microplus, are the primary culprits behind cattle fever. These parasites transmit pathogens that cause bovine babesiosis, a fatal disease for which no vaccines or treatments exist. The only effective defense is eradicating the ticks themselves.

“We rely upon eliminating the vectors to prevent this problem,” Teel said. “The best disease control is to prevent the tick vectors from reestablishing in the U.S. from Mexico, where both the ticks and disease pathogens remain endemic. At risk are U.S. cattle that are immunologically susceptible to infection through the bite of cattle fever ticks.”

In 1943, USDA declared the ticks were eradicated in the U.S., except for a zone on the Texas-Mexico border. A permanent quarantine zone inside Texas along the Rio Grande was established to intercept infested animals and ticks that might come across from Mexico.

The eradication program and quarantine zone on the Texas-Mexico border is estimated to benefit the U.S. cattle industry by more than $1 billion annually, according to USDA APHIS.

But the ticks still cause increased costs for ranchers in the quarantine zone.

“The cattle fever tick remains a significant threat to our state and ranchers, who face substantial costs to protect their herds,” Tracy Tomascik, Texas Farm Bureau associate director of Commodity and Regulatory Activities, said. “These ticks can carry and transmit bovine babesiosis, a disease that destroys red blood cells, causing anemia, fever, illness and death in up to 90% of infected cattle. Outbreaks in southern Texas have prompted stakeholders to take action to control the spread of these ticks.”

The research project will combine disparate datasets from the U.S. Cattle Fever Tick Eradication Program to create a computer-based platform that better analyzes and identifies factors conducive for the spread of cattle fever ticks.

“Texas has developed different technologies and databases that track the history of these infestations and the interactions of how incidents occurred,” Teel said. “There’s a lot to be learned from the relationship of these datasets if they can be evaluated in conjunction with each other. Then, we can develop risk assessments to be proactive about stopping tick incursions as quickly as possible.”