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.