Deer season opened on Saturday with warm temperatures and a dry weather forecast. As I write this column a few days before the opening, I do not have any reports yet on how hunters fared.

For those who plan to travel to South Texas in search of a trophy white-tailed buck, please note the following information.

Texas Parks & Wildlife Department officials are reminding hunters and meat processors in South Texas that additional precautions are required when handling deer carcasses due to concerns about the spread of fever ticks in that region.

Fever ticks are capable of carrying and transmitting a protozoan or tiny blood parasite that destroys red blood cells, causing the deadly livestock disease "Texas Fever." Cattle are highly susceptible to Texas Fever, and it can kill up to 90 percent of infected cattle.

Cattle, horses, white-tailed deer, nilgai and elk can act as a host for the tick, perpetuating its population. If not contained, according to Texas Animal Health Commission officials, the fever tick will con- tinue to spread northward outside the quarantine area and could become re-established in other areas of Texas and throughout much of the South, Southeast and parts of California.

Portions of Zapata, Starr, Jim Hogg, Maverick, Dimmitt and Webb counties are under a TAHC preventive quarantine for livestock due to heightened levels of fever ticks outside the permanent quarantine zone along the Rio Grande border.

The total affected area covers more than 1 million acres.

Contact the landowner or manager to determine the fever tick status if you are hunting in these counties.

"We're telling hunters to use common sense and take precautions when handling and transporting deer taken on ranches within the quarantine zone," said Mike Berger, TPWD director of wildlife.

TAHC said fever ticks can affect the condition and well-being of deer, but are unlikely to cause death. It is safe to eat venison from fever tick-infested deer. Deer harvested on infested, exposed or adjacent to checked premises must be inspected and treated.

If you kill a deer on other properties within the temporary quarantine areas, you have three options:

· Remove the hide completely and leave it on the ranch. If the skull is needed for proof of sex, seal it in a bag, then dispose of the skull away from livestock or wildlife after the carcass is processed.

· Freeze the hide for 24 hours.

· Have the hide/cape inspected and treated by the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Fever Tick Force before removing it from the ranch.

A permit for movement issued by a representative of the TAHC must accompany the shipment of the hide and cape.

"There is too much at stake here to take a chance on inadvertently carrying this deadly parasite outside the quarantine zone, and we are asking hunters to be vigilant to help keep this tick from spreading," Berger said.

TAHC Executive Director Dr. Bob Hillman said it took more than 50 years to eradicate fever ticks from the U.S.

"We have taken extraordinary precautions against expansion of fever tick infestation into other counties or other areas of the state," Hillman said. "Compliance with these measures is extremely important to prevent the spread of this dangerous tick."

A permanent fever tick quarantine zone runs through eight South Texas counties along the Rio Grande to prevent reintroduction of the ticks into Texas and the U.S. Local hunters should not be concerned about deer killed in Lampasas and surrounding counties.

Hunters, if you bag a nice buck, e-mail me your story. I always like to read about and report on successful hunts.

Former Soil Conservation Service employee and longtime writer Mat Taylor offers his outdoors column for Dispatch Record readers. He can be contacted at (254) 518-2262 or via e-mail at mntaylor@agristar. net.