Otto Strey identifying ticks collected from the Laguna Atascosa National Wildlife Refuge.
Strey preparing to add ticks to cattle for testing.
Tick Research Program Assists The Cattle Industry and More
by Rob Williams
Ticks are blood feeding ectoparasites that complete their life cycles on a diversity hosts that occur in many different Texas landscapes. They pose a significant risk to a wide variety of animals as they are efficient vectors of a number of diseases. The Tick Research Laboratory, located in the Veterinary Medical Research Park, is home for several research programs that address tick-related questions relevant to the protection and health of livestock, wildlife, companion animals and humans in Texas and elsewhere. Otto Strey, Senior Research Associate with Dr. Pete Teel, is an integral part of the laboratory and its success in reducing economic losses to the cattle industry resulting from tick parasitism, and in providing the industry economical and effective tick control strategies.
In the battle against ticks and tick-borne diseases, Otto uses up-to-date technologies to track, detect and control ticks, and to test ticks for genetic variation and damaging tick-borne disease pathogens they transmit to livestock and other animals. Many of these battles include research collaborations among scientists from different disciplines and institutions. In a multidisciplinary project, Otto coordinates scientists from three academic units to develop bovine fecal near-infrared spectrometry to detect tick infested cattle. Otto explained, “The ticks regulate the immune system of their hosts which in turn cause endocrine system changes that affect digestive uptake producing fecal chemistry changes detectable with this technology. This non-invasive approach has the potential to offer considerable cost saving efficiency in the detection, treatment and monitoring programs for livestock.”
Otto also collaborates with the University of Texas Health Science Center in Houston (UTHSC) to examine ticks that may cause Lyme Disease in Texas. In this collaboration, Otto collects ticks from various Brazos Valley locations, as well as other select areas in the state, using carbon dioxide-baited traps. Ticks are identified to species and stage of development, and then sent for microbial screening by UTHSC collaborators. Trap locations and habitat types are geographically referenced so that pathogen discovery can be linked to specific locations in subsequent analyses.
Otto enjoys mentoring and collaborating with graduate students on a number of projects that include the population genetics of specific tick species, ecological modeling of landscape systems that support ticks and tick-borne diseases, evaluating tick pheromones for tick surveillance, and new product chemistry for efficacy and development of effective acaricides. Most recently, the laboratory has begun investigating the potential role of feral swine in the maintenance and distribution of ticks and tickborne pathogens. He also provides assistance to Dr. Albert Mulenga and his students who are studying tick-host feeding interactions directed toward the development of anti-tick vaccines.
Otto provides assistance with several external collaborations that include the USDA Agricultural Research Service on discovery of non-chemical approaches in tick control, the Department of Defense in addressing the role of feral swine in the maintenance and distribution of ticks, and the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston to examine tick-borne rickettsiosis in Texas.
The Tick Research Laboratory holds an annual course on tick identification and surveillance for animal health inspectors of the Texas Animal Health Commission and USDA in support of the Texas and National Tick Surveillance program. Otto coordinates a portion of the course devoted to demonstration and hands-on experience of tick collection from cattle and chute-side safety. The Department of Defense relies on the lab to provide education, training and research development for personnel seeking advanced degrees for the Medical Services Corps from the Army, Navy, and Air Force branches of service.
Born and raised in San Antonio, Otto graduated from Texas A&M University in 1982 with a Bachelor of Science degree in Wildlife & Fisheries Sciences. He then moved to Kingsville to study nutrition of javelina as a research assistant at the Caesar Kleberg Wildlife Research Institute at Texas A&I University in 1983, where he later received the Master of Science degree in Animal Science specializing in wildlife nutrition.
Otto then worked as a game biologist at a private ranch in McCulloch County. Otto related his many experiences by saying, “Having the experience working in the cattle/ranching industry has provided valuable perspectives for my work at the Tick Research Laboratory. If you're not exposed to the private cattle industry, you really don't understand what is going on."
Otto enjoys the variety that the lab offers and the colleagues that he has made while working with Dr. Teel and others.
"It's fantastic," he said. "Every day is something new and different."