Feed-through fly control is undoubtedly one of the most popular seasonal feed additives used in pasture-based beef production systems.

What’s worse? The bloodsucking swarm that never seems to end until the sun goes down? Or a few million “shew flies” working together harassing and harrying their victims into exhaustion?

Cattlemen, Texas Animal Health Commission (TAHC) and USDA Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) are waging a constant battle to keep the fever tick contained in counties along the border to Mexico.

The adage “out of sight, out of mind” may avoid a few of life’s problems, but internal parasites are not one of them. It’s common knowledge there are countless microscopic predators lurking in the cattle environment.

The economic impact of cattle fever ticks, including the southern cattle fever tick, Rhipicephalus (Boophilus) microplus, was so severe in the late 1800s that the USDA started an eradication program in the early 1900s to eliminate the deadly disease bovine babesiosis, which is transmitted by this parasitic pest.