The state, particularly eastern Utah, has been hit by diseases carried by mosquitoes, black flies and blood-sucking gnats. These infections include West Nile Virus, equine infectious anemia that destroys red-blood cells in horses and vesicular stomatitis that starves horses and cattle. Trichomoniasis, a venereal disease in cattle, has been detected, as well.

"We're also responsible for bio-terrorism threats," state veterinarian Michael Marshall told the Joint Natural Resources Appropriations Subcommittee this week. "Yet we can barely handle what we've got."

The Utah Department of Agriculture and Food is asking lawmakers for an ongoing appropriation of $81,000 to hire a fourth veterinarian to help test for diseases in poultry and livestock.

Infections had been down during Utah's recent drought, giving time for bio-terrorism training that began with the 2002 Olympics to guard the nation's food supply. The infectious attacks, however, came from swarms of old-time insects, whose numbers spiked at the end of last year's wet winter.

"Sometimes outbreaks may be cyclical," said Kyle Stephens, agricultural deputy commissioner. "We don't always know there's a problem until it manifests itself."

For the first time last summer, Utah joined Wyoming, Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona, Nevada, California and Idaho as states reporting the West Nile Virus. Twenty-four horses were infected in Salt Lake, Utah, Duchesne, Washington, Weber and Uintah counties. Agriculture officials urged owners to vaccinate their horses, use insect repellent and to inspect standing water that provides mosquito-breeding habitat, such as old tires, decorative ponds and birdbaths.

The most common way the disease is transmitted to people and horses is through mosquito bites. And although there is no human vaccination for the virus, less than 1 percent of those who are infected develop serious illnesses, such as encephalitis and meningitis, according to Utah health officials. Outbreaks usually are first detected first in horses.

Another recent first for Utah was the detection of the vesicular stomatitis virus found in 11 cattle in eastern Utah in four separate herds. The disease had not been detected in the state's cattle since the mid-1990s.

Infected animals develop large blisters in the mouth, tongue, lips, nostrils, hooves and teats so painful that the cattle refuse to eat. There is no cure. The animals recover but beef cows cannot nurse their calves and dairy cattle will not return to full milk production.

Last year 104 Utah livestock facilities were quarantined because of the disease - the second highest in the nation, preceded only by Wyoming with 111 operations quarantined, said Earl Rogers, assistant state veterinarian.

The disease causes severe economic losses for ranchers. It also is a significant infection because of its similarity to the highly communicable food-and-mouth disease, eradicated in the United States in 1929. The virus had been so virulent that it could survive in dry hay for up to a month and be carried many miles away by the wind.

The venereal disease Trichomoniasis causes infertility in cattle and early abortion of calves. Infections dropped after a 1997 state law required all bulls going into common grazing allotments to be tested. Last year, 51 bulls tested positive and were quarantined or destroyed, saving ranchers $6.7 million had the infection had gone untreated and spread.

The testing program has brought infection rates down from 5 percent in 1999 to .3 percent. Agriculture officials said that last year about 95 percent of Utah bulls have been tested.