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Articles: Press Release
Texas Opens Search for New State Veterinarian
Contact:
Texas Animal Health Commission
Box l2966 * Austin, Texas 78711 * (800) 550-8242 * FAX (512) 719-0719
James Lenarduzzi, DVM, Acting Executive Director
For info, contact Carla Everett, info officer, at 1-800-550-8242,
ext. 710, or ceverett@tahc.state.tx.us
Texas livestock commissioners have formed a search committee to recruit
a new regulatory veterinarian for the state, who also will serve as the
executive director for the Texas Animal Health Commission (TAHC), the
livestock health regulatory agency. The TAHC's 12 governor-appointed
commissioners, led by Chairman Richard Traylor, have appointed Dr.
James Lenarduzzi to serve as interim state veterinarian and agency
executive director, following Dr. Linda Logan's resignation in early
December. The commissioners plan to hire a permanent replacement by
late winter 2003.
Since 1986, Dr. Lenarduzzi, a 16-year veteran with the TAHC, has served
as director for the agency's Area 5 office, headquartered in Beeville
and encompassing 40 counties in South Texas. A member of the agency's
executive management team, Dr. Lenarduzzi also headed the cattle
brucellosis-free planning project to tighten management practices for
infected cattle herds and develop regulations to enhance eradication
efforts for the bacterial disease. In the past 12 months, the TAHC has
detected and depopulated three infected cattle herds, a dramatic
decrease since the late 1980s, when more than 1,500 cattle herds were
known to be infected.
At the TAHC, Dr. Lenarduzzi has specialized in sheep and goat
diseases, and works closely with the Texas Sheep and Goat Raisers'
Association to eradicate scrapie, a brain-wasting disease of sheep, and
sometimes, goats. Six infected flocks have been detected in Texas since
April 2001, when the nationally revamped disease eradication program
was introduced.
Dr. Lenarduzzi also has served on a number of review teams tasked
with evaluating the progress of cattle tuberculosis eradication
programs in Mexican states. Because TAHC's Area 5 lies along the
Texas-Mexico border, Dr. Lenarduzzi's field staff also works closely
with U.S. Department of Agriculture ports of entry for livestock, and
with the USDA's Fever Tick Program staff who patrol the Rio Grande to
prevent the entry of tick-infested livestock. Dr. Lenarduzzi also
serves as the coordinator of the animal health committee for the Border
States' Governors' Agriculture Table.
Dr. Lenarduzzi is a 1973 graduate of Texas A&M University's College of
Veterinary Medicine, where two of his brothers also earned their
veterinary medical degrees. He serves on the Small Ruminant Committee
for the Texas
Veterinary Medical Association and is a member of the American
Veterinary Medical Association, the Texas and Southwestern Cattle
Raisers Association and the Texas Farm Bureau.
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