LAREDO, Texas (AP) - Customs officials say they recently intercepted a “ significant” number of ticks that carry diseases potentially fatal to cattle on a deer hide being transported from Mexico.

U. S. Customs and Border Protection said Tuesday the discovery of 23 cattle fever ticks was made last week in Laredo. Officials say the hide originating in Nuevo Leon, Mexico, was refused entry to the U.S. and destroyed.

Sidney Aki, the CPS port director in Laredo, said it was the largest number of fever ticks found by agriculture specialists this season.

The ticks can cause what’s known as Texas Cattle Fever, which results in slow growth, reduced reproductive ability and death.

Discovery of just one fever tick outside a traditional border- wide quarantine zone in South Texas would be costly in the nation's largest cattleproducing state.