Tick Control Strategies in Dairy Production Medicine

Ticks are economically the most important pests of cattle and other domestic species in tropical and subtropical countries. They are the vectors of a number of pathogenic microorganisms including protozoans (babesiosis, theileriosis), rickettsiae (anaplasmosis, ehrlichiosis, typhus), viruses (e.g., Kyasanur Forest Disease reported from Karnataka State of India; Crimean-Congo Hemorrhagic Fever reported time and again from Pakistan), bacteria (e.g., Pasteurella, Brucella, Listeria, Staphylococcus) and spirochaetes (Barnett, 1961; Jongejan and Uilenberg, 2004). The only food for the ticks is blood. They are voracious blood suckers; loss of blood for their rapid development impoverishes the hosts. In heavy infestation cattle must have more feed merely to meet the demands of the parasites; the growth of young animals is retarded, and they may remain thin, weak and stunted. In dairy cows, milk production is greatly reduced. Ticks belonging to genus Ixodes and Ornithodorus lahorensis are associated with tick paralysis which is a specific type of intoxication, resulting from the injection of a toxin by certain instars of ticks usually the adult females but sometimes by nymphs. Sweating sickness is a disease of cattle and other domestic species which occurs in South, Central and East Africa. It is associated with infestation by Hyalomma truncatum and has all characteristics of toxicosis (Barnett, 1961). Although, economic losses due to ticks are mainly due to the diseases which they transmit (Garcia, 2003), financial losses associated with nagging irritation and depreciation of the value of skins and hides (upto 2030%) are also significant (Biswas, 2003). In severely tick infested young cattle, sometimes ticks have been found in the oral cavity as well as in the stomach. They reach here as a result of constant licking induced by irritation. The present treatise attempts to review some of the pragmatic tick control measures in dairy cattle and buffaloes. Ghosh et al. (2007) have reviewed upcoming and future strategies of tick control. Similarly, Jongejan and Uilenberg (1994) have reviewed ticks and control methods. Important species of ticks infesting cattle and buffaloes in Pakistan Infestation rates of important genera of ticks infesting cattle in Frontier Region, Peshawar, Pakistan were as follows: Boophilus (43.40%), Hyalomma (36.65%), Rhipicephalus (16.88%) and Amblyomma (3.05%). Infestation rates by ticks of these genera in buffaloes were 53.12, 31.25, 15.62 and 3.05%, respectively (Manan et al., 2007). Khan et al. (1993) investigated the prevalence of ticks on different livestock species in Faisalabad (Pakistan). Infestation rates in cattle and buffaloes were 28.2 and 14.7%, respectively. Most livestock species carried more than one genera of ticks. Ticks of the genus Hyalomma were the most prevalent in cattle and buffalo, followed by those belonging to Boophilus.