News

USDA funds tick disease study

The USDA is funding more research into ticks and how they transmit disease.  The University Of Missouri College Of Veterinary Medicine received 460-thousand dollars from the agency to develop immunizations for cattle using extracts from tick tissues.

One of the diseases targeted is Anaplasmosis, which causes anemia, fever, weight loss, and can be fatal for cattle.

Parasitology Professor Bill Stich is part of a team working on ways to target tick-borne pathogens while still inside the tick and to use the immune response of cattle to interfere with disease-supporting tick molecules.

Researchers say more than 80 percent of beef cattle are affected by ticks, and four of the five major vector-borne diseases found in cattle are transmitted by ticks.