{"id":18407,"date":"2012-09-27T07:00:27","date_gmt":"2012-09-27T12:00:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/?p=18407"},"modified":"2012-09-28T20:33:14","modified_gmt":"2012-09-29T01:33:14","slug":"heres-a-new-way-to-keep-your-cattle-std-free","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/2012\/09\/27\/heres-a-new-way-to-keep-your-cattle-std-free\/","title":{"rendered":"Here’s a New Way to Keep Your Cattle STD-Free"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Photo by DAMIEN MEYER\/AFP\/Getty Images<\/p>

The Texas Animal Health Commission is changing the way it tests for a trichomoniasis.<\/p><\/div>\n

They don’t prepare you for this kind of story in journalism school, but here goes:<\/p>\n

Texas cattle have an STD problem.<\/p>\n

This month the\u00a0Texas Animal Health Commission<\/a> announced new regulations on how to test for a venereal disease among cattle called Tricomoniasis<\/em>. Dr. Dee Ellis<\/a>, Executive Director of the Commission, and Texas State Veterinarian estimates that between two to five percent of Texas cattle are infected by the disease.<\/p>\n

Before you spit out that hamburger, a couple of disclaimers:<\/p>\n

1) The disease doesn’t impact humans.<\/strong>\u00a0It’s only spread between cattle when they mate (nearly all are still bred the old-fashioned way in Texas, not through artificial insemination).<\/p>\n

2) Texas is actually further ahead in testing for the disease than some other parts of the world.\u00a0<\/strong>\u00a0The state requires all cattle imported into the state to be tested.\u00a0Canada and Mexico, for example, don’t test for the disease.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

A Question of Cost<\/h4>\n

The reason the state tests for it is because Tricomoniasis<\/em> causes cows to abort their calves early, costing ranchers thousands of dollars.<\/p>\n

“Some of the herds that are infected may be having only about a 50 percent calf crop. The goal is 90 percent or above on your calf crop,” Dr. Ellis tells StateImpact Texas. A 50 percent calf crop means that only half of the heifers that mate give birth.<\/p>\n

With calves currently selling for up to $1,000 at auction, “even losing one calf is a $1,000 bill,” he added.<\/p>\n

In order to combat Tricomoniasis<\/em>, Texas cattle raisers entered into a voluntary testing program with the Animal Health Commission, in which skin scrapings of bulls are sent to Texas A&M University labs for testing. But there was a problem there as well: the cost. Each sample cost $25 to test.<\/p>\n

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