bastet44 wrote:
"So, what do you do for a living?"
"I'm a tick rider."
Yeah.

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Tick riders guard herds against deadly pest
They're on lookout for re-emergence of bug that kills cattle

Sunday, April 27, 2008


Fred Garza has been patrolling a piece of the Rio Grande for 16 years, usually riding solo on horseback, sometimes venturing to areas where his radio and cell phone have limited range.

But Garza's not looking for drug smugglers, human traffickers or illegal immigrants. He's looking for stray livestock that might be carrying a tick, a tiny pest with a deadly disease, into the United States.

"If it doesn't have hooves, it's not our concern," Garza said.

Garza is a veteran of the 61-person U.S. Department of Agriculture "Tick Rider" force, a group that keeps watch over a 700-mile buffer zone along the Rio Grande from Brownsville to Del Rio.

They inspect both foreign strays and native ranch animals for the fever tick, a parasite eradicated from the U.S. 65 years ago that can transmit disease to cattle and could spread to the entire southeastern U.S. if not controlled.

Lately, the tick has managed to migrate beyond the 862-square-mile permanent quarantine zone, an area from which cattle can't be removed unless they are free of ticks.

...more...