An innovative device called a "four-poster" and chemical
"tickicides" are two tools Agricultural Research Service
scientists are using to protect the southern U.S. border from
ticks that carry serious cattle disease. The southern cattle
tick (Boophilus microplus) and the cattle-fever tick (B.
annulatus) transmit the two species of blood parasites (Babesia
bovis and B. bigemina) that cause the cattle diseases known as
cattle fever, Texas fever or bovine babesiosis. Before their
eradication in 1943, tick-carried diseases crippled the U.S.
cattle industry. Today, descendants of the ticks that caused
those losses can still be found in Mexico. To keep them out,
inspectors maintain constant vigilance at the border, preventing
infested cattle from entering the United States. But what about
wildlife that freely roam? ARS entomologist Mat Pound and
colleagues are investigating strategies for reducing the
likelihood that fever-carrying ticks would reappear. They work
at the ARS Knipling-Bushland U.S. Livestock Insects