Texas Edges Closer To Goal
Of Bangs-Free Designation

AUSTIN — Louisiana has become the 45th state to wipe out bangs, or cattle brucellosis, a bacterial disease that causes cows to abort, deliver weak calves or produce less milk.

Only Texas, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Florida and Missouri remain after a national eradication effort that spans five decades.

"We're also seeing light at the end of the tunnel," says Dr. Max Coats, head of animal health programs for the Texas Animal Health Commission, the state's livestock health regulatory agency.

"Texas has only two herds under quarantine today."

One of the herds is in Orange County, and the other is in Live Oak County, he says.

Coats says it could take two years, however, to find and wipe out the last infected herds.

Since January, six infected herds in Texas have been found and most have been sent to slaughter after being bought out with a combination of state and federal funds. Cooked meat from the infected cows is safe to eat, Coats points out.

In 1999, there were 21 infected herds in the Lone Star State. Eighteen were bought and destroyed.

Only two states still have quarantined herds, Coats says: South Dakota, which has a privately owned bison herd under quarantine, and Texas.

There are public bison herds in Yellowstone National Park with bangs, but they are exempt from the USDA brucellosis eradication program. That remains a point of contention with Wyoming and Montana cattlemen who have worked hard to earn and maintain their brucellosis-free designation.

Florida, Oklahoma and Missouri have no herds under quarantine. They are, however, fulfilling the 12-month waiting period before earning the U.S. Department of Agriculture's brucellosis-free designation.

If an infected herd is detected in one of these states, the 12-month clock starts again.

Unless they originate in a certified brucellosis-free herd, adult cattle are tested for the disease before being sold through livestock markets, at slaughter or prior to being moved out of state to a ranch or for sale.

TAHC regulations also require cattle to be tested prior to being sold or traded by private treaty.

"The brucellosis eradication program has not been easy for cattle producers," Coats says. "In the early 1950s, Texas had at least 20,000 brucellosis-infected herds, and through the years, many producers have lost valuable animals and genetics when infected animals were sent to slaughter. We are close to the finish line because of the hard work and sacrifices of producers and private veterinary practitioners who have worked with state and federal regulatory veterinarians."

The national brucellosis eradication program, headed by USDA, began in the 1950s, primarily due to the disease's public health implications. Many ranchers who handled infected cows during calving, or persons who consumed unpasteurized milk or cheese from these herds, developed the human form of the disease, known as undulant fever.

Victims of the disease suffer spiking fevers, severe head and body aches, acute fatigue and night sweats. Untreated, infection can lead to irreparable heart damage and debilitating arthritis.

Testing of cattle in the 1950s indicated more than 100,000 infected herds which were quarantined to prevent spread of the disease.

Infected cattle were shipped to slaughter, and herds were repeatedly tested until all infected animals had been removed.

"Signs of the disease," Coats says, "including smaller calf crops and weak or dying calves, were fairly common when herds were heavily infected. Ranchers were anxious to rid their herds of the disease, but as the amount of disease decreased, many infected herds displayed no visible signs of infection."

Routine pasteurization of milk and cheese reduced risks to human health, he adds. These factors diminished much of the public's impetus to finish the eradication program, Coats says. Today, bangs is a marketability issue.

"With 45 states free of infection, potential customers may not want to risk trading with entities that haven't cleaned up their herds," Coats explains. "No one wants to import infection, and we want to enhance the marketing opportunities for our cattlemen. We feel pressure to finish cleaning up Texas herds."