Texas Nature Observations and Reminiscenses Page: 39
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TEXAS NATURE OBSERVATIONS AND REMINISCENCES. 39
shedding process, the maturing
tick shows three pairs of legs on
its clumsy body. The suction ap-
paratus of this tick also develops
early and serves the insect, after
crawling on its host to work its
way into the tissues of the ani-
mal's skin,when it sucks its body
full of blood. It can be imagined
how the poor cattle suffer from
these minute leeches when thou-
sands of these insects are adhering
to the cattles' body and sucking
the life juice out of them. The cat-
tle thereby become anaemic and
sick, with high fever and diseased
inner organs, and often die by the
wholesale-all on account of these
minute bloodsuckers.
The enormous loss to cattle
breeders by these ticks may best
be seen by consulting the official
reports of the United States De-
partment of Agriculture, and I
take the liberty to append herein
reports of W. D. Hunter, Shreve-
port, La., and Dr. J. R. Mohler of
the Bureau of Animal Industry of
this department. They have made
most careful, comprehensive esti-
mates of the losses caused by
ticks. The following summary is
taken largely from their writings:
1. Loss by death from disease
in young animals and those re-
moved from temporarily tick-free
localities (as, for instance, all
cities,) to places where they be-
come infested. The enormous loss
under this heading will be under-
stood when it is recalled that ev-
ery bovine animal in the tick area
must suffer an attack of fever if
it becomes infested with ticks. In
an instance that came to the at-
tention of the writers, 39 out of
40 calves dropped in a city deadly
of tick fever when removed to an
infested pasture.
2. Loss in weakened condition
and ,stunted growth caused by
the fever.
3. Loss by gross tick infesta-
tion. At the present time (March
1907) hundreds of cattle in SouthTexas are dying from gross infes-
tation resulting from a mild win-
ter. In extreme cases, Mr. May-
er estimates that as many as 200
pounds of blood may be withdrawn
from the host during a single sea-
son. This makes a gain in weight
impossible, even in the best of pas-
tures. Moreover, Prof. H. A. Mor-
gan and other observers believe
that gross infestation and the con-
sequent general debility induce
acute attack of fever even in ani-
mals ordinarily immune.
4. The tick makes hazardous
the importation of pure-bred cat-
tle. This prevents the upbuilding
of Southern cattle and at the same
time largely deprives the North-
ern breeder of a market that he
should have. Moreover, the in-
ability of the Southern breeder
to exhibit his stock in the North
and of the Northern breeder to ex-
hibit his in the tick area is a
handicap, the importance of which
will be readily seen.
5. The necessary restrictions in
the shipping of Southern cattle al-
so handicap the breeder and a t'-
feet the price.
6. The maintenance of ihe
quarantine involves considerable
annual expense for the protection
of the cattle owners north of the
line.
7. Minor losses may be grouped
as follows: (a) In Texas, espec-
ially, the tick induces the attack
of the screw worm fly (chryso-
myia macellaria Fab.) ; (b.) there
seems to be, as pointed out by Mr.
Mayer, a considerable interference
with the fecundity of the infested
cows; (c) the railroads are put
to the expense of disinfecting cars
and maintaining separate pens and
the stockmen to the expense of
dipping-items which react on the
price that Southern cattle bring.
All the losses that have been
mentioned total approximately
$100,000,000) each year. At present
the loss, as indicated by Dr. Moh-
ler, amounts anually to at least 10
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Menger, R. Texas Nature Observations and Reminiscenses, book, 1913; San Antonio, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth143558/m1/43/?rotate=90: accessed April 26, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting University of Texas Health Science Center Libraries.