http://www.wvwnews.net/story.php?id=3040
Lynn Brezosky
Rio Grande Valley Bureau
Texas border cattlemen have a message for Homeland Security officials grappling with publicity nightmares over the Rio Grande Valley segment of the http://www.wvwnews.net/story.php?id=3707: Bring it west, to their ranches.
That way, the fence can deter not only undocumented immigrants and drug smugglers but also the dreaded fever tick.
“For the whole cattle industry, it would be great,” fourth-generation rancher Hector Guerra said.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s 102-year-old fever-tick eradication program saves the country’s livestock industry an estimated $1 billion annually in potential losses from the http://www.wvwnews.net/story.php?id=3932 that the ticks spread.
Border ranchers are working feverishly to contain the tick after recent outbreaks forced the government to expand quarantine zones for the first time in almost 60 years. But the ticks keep coming, catching rides on livestock wandering over from Mexico and multiplying on the exotic game that ranchers have stocked to supplement their income with hunting leases.
No longer can they simply treat cattle and clear them out of infested pastures until the ticks die. They can go after the ticks on game animals with treated feed, but not within 60 days of hunting season, which rules out the breeding season when efforts would be most effective.
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