Texas A&M maps tick habitat to sharpen ASF preparedness

Texas A&M researchers are using habitat mapping to refine how the U.S. prepares for African swine fever, focusing on Ornithodoros turicata, a soft tick native to Texas that could play a role if ASF were ever introduced. The university’s announcement ties the mapping work to a larger, DHS-supported research effort designed to answer a practical preparedness question: where are the tick populations most likely to persist, and how should that shape surveillance in high-risk swine regions? (vetmed.tamu.edu)

That question matters because ASF has never been detected in U.S. swine, but federal agencies have spent years building response plans around the possibility of introduction. USDA APHIS describes ASF as a deadly disease of domestic and feral swine with no approved treatment, and its preparedness materials explicitly include both domestic pig and feral swine scenarios. APHIS response documents also note that soft ticks in the genus Ornithodoros can transmit ASF, even though the size of that risk in U.S. conditions remains uncertain. (aphis.usda.gov)

Texas A&M’s December 5, 2024, announcement laid out the operational concern in blunt terms: Texas combines potential tick vectors, a large feral hog population, dense commercial swine production in some areas, and proximity to Mexico. The university said the nearly $1.5 million, multi-institution project is supported by the DHS Science and Technology Directorate through the Cross-Border Threat Screening and Supply Chain Defense center. Principal investigator Meriam Saleh said prior laboratory work with a Florida-origin subspecies showed high vector competence for ASFV to pigs, and the new research is intended to determine whether Texas ticks behave similarly. Co-investigators include Dee Ellis, DVM, and Ohio State’s Scott Kenney, Ph.D. (vetmed.tamu.edu)

The habitat-mapping component adds practical specificity. A recent publication indexed by PubMed, Range Modeling and Surveillance of Ornithodoros turicata Ticks: Implications for Detecting African Swine Fever Virus in the United States, signals that the work is moving beyond general concern and toward geographic targeting. Earlier Texas A&M-linked modeling had already suggested that O. turicata could occupy broader areas than historically documented, and that distribution models could guide surveillance for high-consequence pathogens. Taken together, the research direction suggests a shift from asking whether the tick exists in the South to asking exactly where surveillance will be most informative. That last point is an inference based on the sequence of Texas A&M’s published work and announcements. (pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov)

Expert and institutional commentary has been consistent in framing this as a preparedness problem, not evidence of current ASF spread in the U.S. Saleh said the work is meant to fill “critical knowledge gaps” around vector competence in U.S. ticks, while CBTS executive director Heather Manley Lillibridge said cross-institution collaboration is key to staying ahead of ASFV. Separately, DHS’s ASF Master Question List, updated May 6, 2025, underscores that major uncertainties remain around U.S.-relevant transmission pathways, including the role of different Ornithodoros species. (vetmed.tamu.edu)

Why it matters: For veterinary professionals, this is a reminder that foreign animal disease preparedness increasingly depends on ecological intelligence, not just diagnostics and movement controls. If surveillance can be concentrated where soft tick habitat, feral swine activity, and domestic pig density intersect, state and federal responders may be better positioned to detect spillover risk early and allocate limited field resources more efficiently. For swine veterinarians in particular, the work supports a broader view of ASF readiness that includes wildlife interfaces, vector awareness, and coordination with animal health officials, especially in southern states. (aphis.usda.gov)

There’s also an economic reason this research is getting attention. Texas A&M cited USDA estimates that a U.S. ASF outbreak could trigger a 50% drop in hog prices, halt exports of pork and pork products, and lead to major job losses and culling. That’s why APHIS has continued to update its response plans, run ASF Action Week programming, and maintain separate playbooks for domestic pigs and feral swine. Habitat mapping won’t answer every preparedness question, but it can make those plans more geographically precise. (vetmed.tamu.edu)

What to watch: The next key milestone is whether the Texas A&M-led project produces definitive vector competence data for Texas O. turicata populations and whether those findings feed into APHIS surveillance priorities, especially along the U.S.-Mexico border and in swine-dense parts of the South. (vetmed.tamu.edu)