Device, Medication Control Cattle Fever Ticks

(Agricultural Research Service, USDA)

Scientists at USDA’s Agricultural Research Service (ARS) have developed two methods to combat cattle fever ticks that cross the border from Mexico into the U.S. Cattle fever ticks transmit Texas cattle fever (bovine babesiosis), a deadly disease of cattle caused by singled-celled organisms.

Scientists at the ARS facility in Kerrville, Texas, are developing and testing new interventions to eliminate cattle fever ticks. The increased spread of these infestations is likely due, at least in part, to more white-tailed deer and other wild hoofed animals along the Texas-Mexico border. To control disease-carrying ticks on deer, ARS staff developed a device called the 4-Poster Deer Treatment Bait Station.

The bait station lures deer into a feeding unit with rollers to apply insecticide to the animal’s head, ears, and neck. As the deer grooms itself, it transfers the insecticide to other parts of its body, killing most of the ticks on the animal.

The ARS team also reformulated an antiparasitic medication called doramectin into an injectable, time-release treatment. A single injection of the medication, say the researchers, reduces the number of treatments needed and protects cattle for up to four months, killing parasites and saving cattle ranchers considerable expense.

The treatment has been tested with positive results on St. Croix in the U.S. Virgin Islands against the tropical bont tick, which transmits a cattle-borne disease called heartwater. The ARS team is working to extend the effective period to six months, which would make it more useful in treating U.S. cattle for ticks.

The cattle fever tick project is reported in the November/December 2010 issue of Agricultural Research magazine.

*     *     *