scholarly journals Alterations in Host Metabolism by the Specific and Anorectic Effects of the Cattle Tick (Boophilus Microplus) I. Food Intake and Body Weight Growth

1971 ◽  
Vol 24 (2) ◽  
pp. 373 ◽  
Author(s):  
RM Seebeck ◽  
PH Springell ◽  
JC O'kelly

This experiment was designed to measure the effects of infestation by B. microplus on cattle and to separate the effects of reduced food intake ("anorectic effect") from those due to the remaining factors of tick infestation ("specific effect"). Hereford cattle kept on a high-quality diet were studied over a treatment period of 11 weeks with the tick-infested animals being infested regularly with equal larval doses for each animal.

1971 ◽  
Vol 24 (2) ◽  
pp. 381 ◽  
Author(s):  
JC O'kelly ◽  
RM Seebeck ◽  
PH Springell

Changes in the blood composition of Hereford steers kept on a high. quality diet and infested with B. microplus were studied. The experiment was designed so that the effects on blood composition due to reduced feed intake ("anorectic effect") and those due to the remaining factors of tick infestation ("specific effect") could be independently estimated.


1971 ◽  
Vol 24 (4) ◽  
pp. 1033 ◽  
Author(s):  
PH Springell ◽  
JC O'kelly ◽  
RM Seebeck

Plasma and red cell volumes were determined and the amounts of circulating metabolites deduced following heavy B. microplus infestation of Hereford steers fed a high quality diet. The experiment was designed to separate out effects of the cattle tick on host metabolism caused by reduced food intake ("anorectic effect"), and by other factors ("specific effect"). The specific effect caused a depression of the red cell volume and of the amounts of circulating haemoglobin, albumin, and total cholesterol and increases in the amount of circulating globulin. Anorectic effects were not significant.


1957 ◽  
Vol 8 (4) ◽  
pp. 414 ◽  
Author(s):  
PR Wilkinson

When two comparable herds of cattle were kept continuously in adjoining paddocks, frequent acaricidal treatment was necessary to control ticks (Boophilus microplus (Canestrini) ). Thereafter, one of the two herds was grazed alternately in its own and an adjacent paddock, the intervals between each transfer being sufficient to ensure that most of the ticks in the unoccupied paddock had died. Tick infestations on this herd were greatly reduced, and less frequent use of acaricides was necessary. The herd remaining in the continuously stocked pasture continued to need acaricidal treatment for recurring tick infestation. In a field trial with 350–400 cattle moved a t intervals to each of three formerly heavily infested paddocks, tick infestations remained very light, although the herd was dipped only In January, September, and the following January. A control herd on continuously stocked pasture, treated at the owner's discretion, required eight dippings in this period. This procedure of "pasture spelling" seems likely to be widely applicable in central Queensland.


Author(s):  
Jerbeson Hoffmann da Silva ◽  
Renata Rebesquini ◽  
Diorges Henrique Setim ◽  
Cláudia Almeida Scariot ◽  
Maria Isabel Botelho Vieira ◽  
...  

Abstract Cattle tick fever (CTF) causes significant economic losses in the livestock sector. The pathogenic action of the hemoparasites is associated with anemia, weight loss, abortion and reduced productivity, which result with animal death. Programs to prevent CTF involve several procedures, including immunization, chemoprophylaxis and use of ectoparasiticides, together with the vector control in the environment. The objective of this study was to report an acute outbreak of CTF in a group of 157 Hereford cattle from a farm without presence of the vector, that were moved to a farm in the same state with a high tick infestation (Rhipicephalus microplus). On the day before the transportation, the animals received a chemoprophylaxis with imidocarb dipropionate (3 mg/kg, SC), which was repeated 21 days after the first application. After 42 days, some animals showed signs compatible with CTF, which was confirmed through clinical examination, necropsy, histopathological and hemoparasitological analyses. The morbidity rate was 37.6% and the mortality rate was 24.8%. Calves that were recently weaned were the group most affected with the tick fever, morbidity (100% and mortality (73%). Chemoprophylaxis in association with use of ectoparasiticides was not sufficient to control the outbreak of the disease.


Parasitology ◽  
2011 ◽  
Vol 139 (2) ◽  
pp. 259-263 ◽  
Author(s):  
E. MIRANDA-MIRANDA ◽  
R. COSSIO-BAYUGAR ◽  
F. MARTÍNEZ-IBAÑEZ ◽  
R. CASASANERO-ORDUÑA ◽  
J. FOLCH-MALLOL

SUMMARYThe purpose of this study was to describe an unreported entomopathogenic fungus that naturally infects the cattle tickRhipicephalus (Boophilus) microplus(Acari: Ixodidae). Engorged female ticks, showed symptoms of fungal infection after controlled tick infestation of cattle. Infected ticks developed a distinctive dark colour, a pale mould grew over the cuticle and the ticks eventually died covered with fungal conidiophores. The responsible fungus was isolated and cultured on mycological medium and submitted to microscopic morphology, biochemical phenotyping and 18S rRNA ribotyping analyses, which identified it as aflatoxin-producingAspergillus flavus. Spores from the cultured fungus were experimentally sprayed over healthy engorged female ticks, obtaining an 80% prevalence of experimental infection of healthy ticks and their egg masses, the larval progeny after incubation under laboratory conditions was also infected. These results demonstrate thatA. flavusis the causative agent of the natural fungal disease of the cattle tickR. microplusdescribed here.


1955 ◽  
Vol 6 (4) ◽  
pp. 655 ◽  
Author(s):  
PR Wilkinson

A small herd of cattle infested with the cattle tick, Boophilus microplus (Canestrini) was kept in a previously unstocked paddock for 11 months without treatment for tick infestation. Frequent examinations showed that widely differing numbers of ticks developed on the cattle. The "tick resistance" of one animal, which showed no adult ticks during the summer months, could only be accounted for by mortality of the larvae and nymphs on the animal, since as many larvae were seen on selected small areas of this animal as on some animals carrying many adult ticks. The animals grazed together and thus would encounter similar numbers of tick larvae. The degree of susceptibility to adult tick infestation showed negligible correlation with skin thickness measurements and was not related to coat length. Larvae reappeared on the cattle 6 weeks after the first stocking of the paddock in March. The animals became almost free of ticks for 2 weeks in August. Although larvae were most numerous in November-December, they gave rise to fewer adults than the earlier wave of larvae in September- October. Some of the cattle suffered from "tick-worry'' in October, but thereafter their condition improved without treatment.


1964 ◽  
Vol 15 (5) ◽  
pp. 841 ◽  
Author(s):  
KLS Harley ◽  
PR Wilkinson

Three comparable herds of cattle were grazed in a wet tropical area of north Queensland for the comparison of control measures against the cattle tick, Boophilus microplus. The cattle tick infestation of one herd was controlled by simulated "conventional" methods, the cattle receiving acaricidal treatment when the count of "standard" ticks (0.5 cm or more in length) on the right side averaged 20 or more per animal. The tick infestation of the second herd was controlled by dipping in acaricide at 21-day intervals, so that few of the tick larvae attaching to the cattle between dippings reached maturity. This was continued until the larval population in the pasture was greatly depleted. The procedure, for which the term planned dipping has been proposed, was repeated when the count of standard ticks on the right side averaged more than 20 per animal. The tick infestation of the third herd was controlled by grazing alternately in two adjacent paddocks, the interval between each transfer being sufficient to ensure that most of the ticks in the unstocked paddock had died. Acaricidal treatment was applied at times of paddock changes and also at other times if the tick count was more than 20 per animal. This procedure is known as pasture spelling. Over the 2 years of the experiment, planned dipping and pasture spelling resulted in increased efficiency in tick control. In comparison with the herd given conventional tick control, planned dipping resulted in no reduction in the number of acaricidal treatments, but the tick burden was reduced by 79%. Pasture spelling resulted in the number of acaricidal treatments being reduced by 60% and the tick burden by 64%.


1988 ◽  
Vol 39 (2) ◽  
pp. 299 ◽  
Author(s):  
RW Sutherst ◽  
GF Maywald ◽  
AS Bourne ◽  
ID Sutherland ◽  
DA Stegeman

The resistance to the cattle tick, Boophilus mircoplus, of four herds of cattle with different Bos indicus (zebu) content, grazed at each of two locations in the subtropics of Queensland, Australia, was measured using artificial tick infestations at intervals of either 2 or 6 months over periods of up to 4 years. The factors affecting resistance of crossbred herds at each location in order of decreasing importance were the proportion of R. indicus genes, lactation, age interacting with nutritional conditions, a seasonal cycle which differed in timing at the two locations, and rainfall during the week of tick infestation. These variables accounted for 62% of the observed variation and the statistical model explained concurrent changes in resistance of other herds equally well. These findings are combined with data on the survival of freeliving stages of the ticks in a later paper to explain the observed variation in populations of cattle ticks on the untreated herds when grazing in separate pastures.


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