3 days ago
Mosquito control efforts in Jeff Davis will extend into farming areas
A new ordinance was adopted on Wednesday by the Jeff Davis Parish Police Jury, making it mandatory for the Jeff Davis Parish Mosquito Abatement district to extend its mosquito control efforts to agricultural and farming areas.
Previously, aerial spraying for livestock in these areas was not required, according to Police Jury Ordinance Committee Chairwoman Kori Myers.
'This change is crucial for our cattlemen, as agriculture remains the largest industry in the parish, and they have been experiencing significant livestock losses due to insufficient spraying,' she said.
Myers said members of the Jeff Davis Parish Cattlemen's Association and Louisiana Beefmaster Breeders Association recently approached her as the ordinance committee chairman and asked the police jury to enact an ordinance to ensure that their livestock would be sprayed.
'Everybody in this parish pays a mosquito tax, whether you have agriculture or residential, and our agricultural producers own more property so they are paying more taxes and their livestock are dying,' she said.
High mosquito populations in pastures have led to cattle contracting West Nile Virus or even suffocating from mosquito accumulation in their nasal system.
Myers indicated that while any expansion of the service is contingent on financial feasibility and maintaining current residential coverage, she believes the existing parishwide mosquito abatement tax is sufficient to provide the service to cattle producers without negatively impacting residential services.
'We consider it a public health importance to have the livestock sprayed against mosquito-borne illnesses and we feel it is financially feasible to do that without reducing any service to our residential customers,' she said, noting that cattle producers contribute to taxes and deserve to have their animals sprayed and not lose them to mosquitoes.
Producers will work closely with the mosquito control district to have areas sprayed. Instead of spraying an entire area, producers will move their cattle to a specific location and notify mosquito control, which will then conduct targeted aerial spraying over that area, Myers said.
The mosquito abatement district is also now required to maintain daily records of all abatement activities. These records must include details of specific locations, control measures, chemicals used, and all residential requests. These records must be kept for three years and be made available to the police jury upon request.
