Texas Fever

On April 4, 1907, the Los Angeles Times reported that County veterinarian Dr. W.C. Rayen was busy stamping out the Texas fever infection on the pasture lands along the Santa Ana River. No new outbreaks had been reported in the month prior to the report. Wallace Ables was spraying the cattle on his ranch in the West Riverside area with oil at frequent intervals in order to avoid this disease. This made me wonder what was Texas Fever?

Texas Fever was caused by a parasitic protozoa that entered cattle through the bite of the cattle tick. Infection with the protozoa caused the cattle to become very ill and eventually die. The disease first appeared just before the Civil War and continued to be a big problem in the cattle industry until World War I. The first effective method of controlling this terrible disease was dipping or spraying the cattle with oil, regular old crude oil, to kill the ticks that carried the disease.

By the 1920s Texas Fever was no longer the problem it once was and the federal government declared it eradicated in 1943.  However, it began to reappear again in the late 20th century. There is now an immunization to prevent this disease.