ggregate is a heavy loss. The damage
resulting to the southern purchaser of northern purebred or high-grade
cattle is another item of no small moment. About 10 per cent of all such
cattle taken into the South die of Texas fever, even after they are
immunized by blood inoculations, and about 60 per cent of them succumb to
Texas fever when not so treated. As they are usually very expensive animals
and of a highly valued strain of blood, the loss in certain cases is
excessive and in others almost irreparable, owing to the possible
extinction of some particular type especially selected for the improvement
of the herd.
Another instance in which it is difficult to figure the injury done by the
ticks is in the case of death of nonimmune cattle in the tick-free pastures
of the South. Such animals are as susceptible to Texas fever as nonimmune
northern cattle, and inasmuch as there is in many States only one out of
every four farms infested with ticks, the cattle on the remaining farms
will in many cases contract Texas fever when exposed to the fever tick.
These losses can scarcely be computed, as the death rate depends so much on
the season of the year when exposure occurs and on the age of the animal
affected. However, the deaths among such cattle are considerable, although
this fact is little appreciated or understood by many outside the infected
area.
On rare occasions a small outbreak of Texas fever occurs north of the
quarantine line as a result of improperly disinfected cars, of unscrupulous
dealers breaking the quarantine regulations, or of some accidental
condition. Such damage, however, is slight, but should be considered in
summing up the loss occasioned by the fever tick.
The advertisement which a breeder obtains and the sales which are made by
having his stock in the show ring are usually lost to the cattle raiser in
the infected area who aspires to display his animals in the North, as they
are barred from most of these exhibitions. On the other hand, the southern
farmer is not given an opportunity to see and be stimulated by the fine
specimens of northern cattle which might be shown at southern stock
exhibits, for the reason that the danger of contracting Texas fever is too
patent to warrant such exposure. A heavy expense is incurred by the
Government and the States in enforcing the regulations that apply to the
quarantine line.
Another loss which is indirectly sustained by the southern cattle industry
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