Texas: Water Everywhere Raises Risk of Livestock Disease

Rushing water, stagnant ponds, or even sudden dry stages after wet periods can lead to outbreaks of livestock disease.
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Rushing water, stagnant ponds, or even sudden dry stages after wet periods can lead to outbreaks of livestock disease. Mosquitoes and biting flies, capable of carrying and transmitting diseases, thrive in the damp weather. Prolonged wet periods can also bring anthrax spores to the surface, making them a threat to livestock and wildlife after pastures dry.

Horse owners should take precautions against mosquito-transmitted diseases by having their animals vaccinated against West Nile virus (WNV) and the reportable diseases Eastern and Western equine encephalitis (EEE and WEE). “If you wait until cases of ‘sleeping sickness’ occur in your area, you may have waited too long to vaccinate,” said Bob Hillman, DVM, Texas’ state veterinarian and head of the Texas Animal Health Commission (TAHC), the state’s livestock and poultry health regulatory agency.

“You need time for the vaccine to do its job, which is to build the animal’s immunity to a particular disease,” he said. “Vaccines can provide the best disease protection possible, but it’s also crucial to keep up with booster shots, as recommended by the vaccine manufacturer or your private veterinary practitioner. In 2006, 111 horses were confirmed to have West Nile virus in Texas. So far this year, the disease has been confirmed in one horse, located in Willacy County.”

Three cases of Potomac horse fever (which is not a regulatory disease) have been confirmed in Kerr County by the Texas Veterinary Medical Diagnostic Laboratory. Potomac horse fever, first detected in Maryland in l979, is not normally found in Texas. Clinical cases usually are found near rivers, streams, ponds, or canals. The infection involves tiny flukes that are parasites of water snails. The flukes hatch their offspring into the water, and these are then picked up by aquatic insects that molt into flying insects, including caddis flies and mayflies. Horses can become exposed to Potomac horse fever when they eat or drink anything contaminated with the insects

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