CATTLE QUARANTINE 187 



country, and only tick-free cattle may pass beyond 

 it. Rigorous inspection along the barrier is ob- 

 served, and the spread of the ticks into the clear 

 areas thus prevented. In America, quarantine of 

 cattle is enforced prior to removal. Spring brings 

 a renewal of activity of the ticks as well as of most 

 other animals. The cattle are quarantined for some 

 days until the majority of the ticks have dropped 

 from them. They are again detained in new enclo- 

 sures should any ticks be found, and the quarantine 

 is repeated until they are perfectly tick-free. They 

 then are grazed on pastures that have been unused 

 for at least one year. Low temperature is bad for 

 Boophihts, and the larvae die at a temperature of about 

 - 8 C. Winter conditions are a great aid to the 

 United States in combating ticks and tick diseases. 

 But when a country like Queensland or South Africa 

 is concerned, where winter conditions differ but little 

 from summer ones, and both have a high temperature, 

 quarantine methods are far less effective, since there 

 is no cold to kill the larvae. 



In Russia and other European districts where 

 cattle ticks abounded, redwater is said to have 

 disappeared with drainage. This is explained by 

 the dryness causing the death of the larval ticks. 

 A similar result is stated to have occurred in 

 Queensland when certain swamps were drained. 

 But while drainage has undoubtedly been of use in 

 some cases, it has not in others, and we know of one 

 ironic condition of affairs where some Irish cattle 

 always kept to drained land have now become 

 chronic cases of redwater, while the cattle of the 



