Anthrax Confirmed in a Val Verde County Captive White-Tailed Deer Herd

AUSTIN, TX – Texas Animal Health Commission (TAHC) officials received confirmation of anthrax in a captive white-tailed deer herd on a Val Verde County premises on July 11, 2021. This is the first anthrax case in Texas this year.

The premises is located in the south central portion of the county, north of Comstock, and has been quarantined. TAHC rules require proper disposal of affected carcasses on the premises prior to release of the quarantine.

“The TAHC will continue to closely monitor the situation and provide updates as needed,” said Dr. Andy Schwartz, TAHC State Veterinarian and Executive Director. “Producers are encouraged to remain vigilant and consult with their local veterinary practitioner if they suspect their animals are exposed to anthrax or are interested in vaccinating their livestock.”

Anthrax is a bacterial disease caused by Bacillus anthracis, which is a naturally occurring organism with worldwide distribution, including certain parts of Texas. Anthrax cases in Texas are most often found in portions of Crockett, Val Verde, Sutton, Edwards, Kinney and Maverick counties.

An effective vaccine for livestock is available and is commonly used in areas that are prone to have anthrax. To be effective, the vaccine must be used before the animal is exposed to the bacteria. There is no approved vaccine for deer. Consult a local veterinarian or a local TAHC region office for more details on vaccinating your livestock for anthrax. All label directions should be followed carefully, including personal protective measures while handling the vaccine to prevent accidental exposure.

It is common to see an increase in anthrax cases after periods of wet, cool weather, followed by hot, dry conditions. During these conditions, animals can ingest the anthrax bacteria when they consume contaminated grass and hay, or inhale the spores. Outbreaks usually end when cooler weather arrives.

After exposure to anthrax, it typically takes three to seven days for animals to show symptoms of anthrax. Once symptoms begin, death will usually occur within 48 hours. Acute fever followed by rapid death with bleeding from body openings are all common signs of anthrax in livestock. If you see wild or exotic deer dying more than 10 animals at a time, and carcasses show bleeding that is characteristic of anthrax, move livestock away from carcasses immediately.

Owners of livestock and animals displaying symptoms consistent with anthrax or experiencing death of animals should contact a private veterinary practitioner or a TAHC official immediately.

Producers are encouraged to follow basic sanitation precautions when handling affected livestock or carcasses. It is recommended to wear protective gloves, long sleeve shirts and to wash thoroughly afterward to prevent accidental spread of the bacteria to people. For more information on how anthrax affects humans please visit https://www.dshs.texas.gov/IDCU/disease/anthrax/Information.aspx.

For more information about anthrax, visit:

TAHC Anthrax Factsheet: https://www.tahc.texas.gov/news/brochures/TAHCFactsheet_Anthrax.pdf
Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Anthrax Publication: https://cdn-ext.agnet.tamu.edu/wp-c...s-symptoms-and-advice-for-landowners.pdf

Contact your local TAHC region office

It’s a shame but not surprising. Anthrax in many parts of that country is always there...just waiting for right conditions to bloom.
Many years ago I had a big lease out there that we put 9yrs of hard work into producing good deer and boy we had some good ones. Wiped out in one anthrax year. It was sickening the deer we lost.
I loved hunting that country

First ranches I ever bought were in val verde and I watched 80-90% of my deer die in 2001. Sold out of that country in 06 and never looked back.

They won’t “contain” it in that captive deer herd. Blooming anthrax doesn’t know about fences.

Man, I thought it only reared it's ugly head when it was dry. I thought that area had gotten some decent rains this spring and early summer.
Damn......hate to hear this

Far from a pro or even knowledgeable probably about anthrax but read something that it tends to act up when weather patterns make a big change like drought to wet and vise versa.

Having dealt with it first hand and being an old researcher I can positively state that I know more than most state biologists about it. In fact, they’ve finally started agreeing with me.

You are mostly right. It is WORSE when it transitions from wet to dry hot but that can be any spring. If you are in the anthrax zones you probably lose a few animals to it each year. The real bad outbreaks occur when you have a wet spring and a quick transition from wet to dry hot (like this year) AND you have a high number of biting flies. They are vectors that were over looked until recent years. It gets started by a few animals eating grass/dirt where the spores are blooming. But it spreads rapidly if there are a lot of biting flies when that animal gets infected.

Oh, and it’s a real shame that tpwd focus on cwd when anthrax not only has but will continue to kill millions more Texas deer than cwd ever will. Especially when you consider the fact that there is nothing they can do about cwd and so much they could do about anthrax.

What could the state do about anthrax?

Dry to wet, wet to dry doesn't matter if you are ground zero!

My cousin is a vet and he just told me the same thing.
He said it is the same way with blackleg and cattle. Extreme weather events, hot, cold, rain, drought, etc is when it pops it's nasty head up.

Great info....thanks


Was wondering the same thing. I don't think there is much that can be done such as a vaccine as there is for livestock and blackleg

Anthrax is in the soil. Out of the 254 counties in Texas about 36 of them have had an outbreak at some point in time....it’s just those properties that lie within the triangle have the tumblers line up more often than other areas that trigger the spores.

I don’t think think there is much the state of Texas can do about it. Maybe a program to put out medicated feed or something.

This area is the Capital of Anthrax and has been for as long as I can remember. Carta Valley is usually the first place it shows up.
Adios,
Gary

I’ve heard there is a vaccine for livestock but it has to be given yearly.
If they could figure out a feed for vaccinating deer would be good.
I have no idea on that.

Googled and found this below. Looks like an option is not far away but I didn't see anywhere in the article that talked about the cost of administering it. I scanned it pretty quickly though so may have missed it.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/08/200811133228.htm

There is medicated feed you can put out to greatly reduce loss

How practical is that on a large scale?

Yes there is. I have a friend who is a wildlife biologist that managed a ranch just outside of Carta Valley from the late 80's until around 2000 after the outbreak in the mid 80's. That ranch was over 9,000 acres and in the mid 80's lost every adult deer and they could only find about 20 fawns that survived. They TTT in deer from Tom Green county and and vaccinated everyone. He started to do research on Anthrax and developed a feed with the live vaccine coated to it. He would feed it one day at a time and would feed it 9 times in a 7 month period. He was very successful with the feed and documented his results. He worked a with Dr. at A&M and even wrote recap on his results. He was diligent in feeding it about once every 3 to 4 weeks starting in late Feb until late August. One thing he also did was to burn every dead deer carcass he found not matter what killed it. He also sprayed diesel on all the vegetation in a large circle around any dead carcass. Flies were his concern on the vegetation and then vultures on his reason for burning the carcass. He told med uring his time on the ranch that during the 2 major outbreaks that he only lost around 4 or 5 deer(that he found) total each year. While neighboring ranches were loosing as much as 80%. He coated the vaccine on corn and mixed in molasses to hide any taste. He used a cement mixer and tried to put out about 1/2-1# of corn with a dose of vaccine per deer in each feed pen or around water troughs. I do not remember the cost factor was but it was really not that expensive since the vaccine was not expensive. He only had one day of prepping and feeding for each feeding period. His knowledge on Anthrax and his results were to notch.

If a ranch is already feeding then it is not as bad as it is for those not feeding. The owner of the ranch has to put a $ value on the whitetail herd and then the value of his land with managed herd of whitetails.