Acaricide resistance and synergism between permethrin and amitraz against susceptible and resistant strains of Boophilus microplus (Acari: Ixodidae).

The control of the southern cattle tick, Boophilus microplus (Canestrini), in Mexico and many other countries relies on chemical acaricides. Boophilus microplus has developed resistance to all major classes of acaricides in recent years. To gain a better understanding of the resistance and to develop resistance management strategies that benefit both Mexican ranchers and USDA's cattle fever tick eradication program (CFTEP), the authors used larval bioassay techniques to determine levels of resistance to permethrin and amitraz and then evaluated synergism between these two acaricides in one susceptible laboratory tick strain and four resistant strains originating from Mexico and Brazil. To examine mechanisms of resistance to permethrin in these strains, the frequency of a mutated sodium channel gene was determined using a PCR assay. The tick strains from Mexico and Brazil demonstrated 49.4- to over 672.2-fold resistance to permethrin, and up to 94.5-fold resistance to amitraz. While the San Roman strain from Mexico was the most permethrin-resistant strain, the Santa Luiza strain from Brazil was the most amitraz-resistant strain. A significant correlation was found between the permethrin resistance ratio and the allelic frequency of the sodium channel mutation. Significant synergism between permethrin and amitraz was found when one acaricide was tested in the presence of another. Synergism ratios ranged from 1.5 to 54.9 when amitraz was tested as a synergist for permethrin. Similar synergism ratios were obtained when permethrin was tested as a synergist for amitraz. Permethrin caused virtually no mortality in the San Roman strain, even at the highest concentration (3294 microg cm(-2)). Adding amitraz (11.0 microg cm(-2)) to permethrin led to a dramatic increase in larval mortality, even at very low concentrations of permethrin.