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Texas Animal Health Commission details multi‑agency responses to equine herpes, avian influenza, bovine TB and screworms
Summary
At its Feb. meeting, the Texas Animal Health Commission reviewed multiple recent animal‑disease responses — including an extensive equine herpes outbreak, a Shelby County HPAI poultry response, bovine tuberculosis traces and planning for New World screworm sterile‑fly dispersal — and approved related operational steps and waivers.
The Texas Animal Health Commission on Feb. 21 reviewed a string of disease responses affecting livestock and poultry and approved related operational steps to support surveillance and control.
Executive Director Dr. Denes opened the agency report by describing the commission’s role in recent outbreaks and preparedness efforts. The commission said it traced a major equine herpes myeloencephalopathy response back to a multi‑day barrel‑racing event in early November and subsequently placed positive and exposed horses under quarantine and hold orders while coordinating with veterinarians and event sponsors.
The agency also recounted a Dec. 11 response to a high‑path avian influenza detection at a commercial poultry premises in Shelby County. The site contained about 12 houses and roughly 265,000 birds; TAHC worked with growers, USDA and local partners on depopulation, cleaning and environmental testing. The control area was released Jan. 14 and environmental sampling returned “not detected” results on Feb. 12, the commission said.
Commission staff reported continued work on several bovine tuberculosis investigations, including two dairies and a beef herd undergoing testing and assessment. A large Texas dairy is in an active test‑and‑remove phase, with multiple removal tests scheduled through the spring, staff said. Genetic sequencing suggests some recent introductions were of Mexican origin and USDA is collaborating on test plans.
New World screworms in Mexico prompted a wide federal and state response. TAHC briefed commissioners on USDA’s phased sterile‑fly dispersal operations originating from Tampico beginning Feb. 9 and on a new domestic dispersal facility at Moore Air Base that can process tens of millions of sterile flies weekly. The governor issued a statewide disaster declaration Jan. 29 to mobilize state resources for Texas preparedness and surveillance; the commission will manage additional surveillance traps in Webb, Jim Hogg, Brooks and Kennedy counties.
Dr. Jesse Mundy, who led the epidemiology presentation, credited rapid communications and industry cooperation for limiting further spread in several outbreaks: “I actually attribute a lot of the success of what we went through to communications because, as soon as she gave the industry directions on what they needed to do, most of them did it,” Mundy said, referring to agency outreach to producers and veterinarians.
The commission approved procedural waivers and variances related to agency operations by unanimous vote, and commissioners heard multiple operational updates — including expanded trap deployment and plans for producer outreach and exercises to test animal‑movement controls.
The meeting closed with routine administrative business and a presentation of a 35‑year service award.
What’s next: staff said environmental testing, traceability work and collaborative planning with federal partners will continue; several ongoing disease trace investigations will remain under active testing and follow‑up.
