As cases of a deadly tick-borne cattle disease continue to spread across Arkansas, researchers with the University of Arkansas Division of Agriculture have received nearly $500,000 in federal funding to test potential treatments to protect cattle herds.
The Arkansas Agricultural Experiment Station received a two-year, $492,218 grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture to study ways to combat bovine theileriosis, a disease caused by the parasite Theileria orientalis Ikeda and carried primarily by the invasive Asian longhorned tick.
Emily McDermott, an assistant professor in the Department of Entomology and Plant Pathology and project director for the grant, said the rapid increase in cases has created significant challenges for cattle producers across the state…