Madison County's lone reindeer rancher is trying to rebuild his herd after a tick-borne blood disease quickly wiped out most of his reindeer, which have been rented for holiday season parties and popular singers' commercials and videos. "At first we thought it was the heat," Reindeer Inc. ranch manager Larry Holder said. "But when we lost five in one day, we knew it was something else."

Twenty-three animals from the 30-head herd died in a month's time.

"They were eating normal, acting normal, and then they'd start staggering," Holder told The Huntsville Times in a story Thursday. "Within 45 minutes, they'd be dead."

The animals at the ranch, which began operations in 1979, are contracted out during the holiday season to pose for pictures with Santa Claus at shopping malls throughout the country. They've been rented out for parties, a movie, a Garth Brooks commercial for Wal-Mart, and for the Mariah Carey video, "All I Want for Christmas is You."

Holder said the reindeer, which cost between $3,000 and $5,000 each, began dying the second week in August. Local veterinarians and animal doctors at Auburn University tried to help them, but it took some time for blood work to show what was going wrong.

He said he left for Auburn one day in August with two animals, and one reindeer was dead before he reached the university. The other died within minutes of getting there, but it was just long enough to help find the answer.

"The vet said you can tell more about blood from a living animal than about blood from one that's dead," Holder said.

He said the animals had suffered from babesia, which is brought on by repeated tick bites.

The area where the reindeer graze now has been sprayed for ticks, and Holder bought guineas to eat the parasites. The portion of the herd that hadn't been killed was put on antibiotics.

He also is buying reindeer in Michigan and Texas, hoping to rebuild the herd to 30 head, but the ranch suffered a financial hit from the reindeer deaths and vet bills.

"It'll take years to recover," Holder said.