The Bizarre History of Cattle Dipping

In the late 1800s, a new challenger arose to threaten the booming American cattle industry; the “Texas Fever Tick”. Or more specifically, two species of cattle tick. Boophilus microplus and Boophilus annulatus were found to host a parasite that killed the beefy European cattle breeds favored in the United States. An infection caused massive red blood cell loss in the cows, who died less than two weeks after a bite. Northern states were lucky; hard frosts and snowfall killed off the ticks every fall and winter, keeping numbers low. But Southern state cattle herds were inundated year-round by the little buggers, causing a panic across the markets and an enormous federal quarantine line across the country. <a href="https://medium.com/the-environment/the-bizarre-history-of-cattle-dipping-6d7d1fc7aff9">Read More</a>