We have occasionally discussed ticks before. The spider relatives are a serious source of illnesses in humans and in wild and domestic animals too. Cow killing ticks appear to be on the move in the United States. They have been moving east to west and bringing disease with them.
The cow killing tick in question is the Asian long horned tick. An invasive species first spotted in the United States about six years ago. It appears to have brought theileria with it.
That collection of diseases can be fatal to cattle as it produces severe anemia. Treatments do exist but they are expensive and prevention becomes key.
Acccording to KOSU
“Part of the reason theileria is so devastating to cattle is because it’s new to the U.S., said Cassandra Olds, a microbiologist at Kansas State University who studies the relationships between pathogens and hosts.
U.S. cows are naïve to the disease, Olds explained, meaning the animals have never been exposed to the pathogen. Without prior experience, their immune systems have no knowledge of how to contend with the disease.
“Outbreaks are always going to be the most severe when something is introduced to an environment,” Olds said. And at this point, only a statistically negligible portion of the U.S. cattle population has been infected with theileria.”
According to the Merck Veterinary Manual:
“Theilerioses are a group of tickborne diseases caused by protozoan parasites of the Theileria genus. A large number of Theileria spp are found in domestic and wild ungulates in tropical and subtropical regions of the world. The most important species affecting cattle are T parva and T annulata, which cause acute disease resulting in high levels of mortality. T lestoquardi, T luwenshuni, and T uilenbergi are important causes of mortality in sheep, and T equi sometimes causes clinical disease in horses. A therapeutic drug, buparvaquone, is available to treat the diseases, but it is expensive, and control of the diseases usually involves either prevention of tick infestation or, in some areas, vaccination.”
Tick control is crucial. In the long-term some advances have been made against the deadly arachnids. Ticks were considered to be ineligible for genetic altering. But recent research at the University of Nevada shows the way toward altering their genes. The research suggests there will be a way to edit tick genes to control the ability to spread disease. It can’t come soon enough to blunt the impact of cow-killing ticks.