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Title: Mitigation of Resistance Through Mixtures of Traditional Pesticides, Anti-tick Vaccines, and New Acaricides Developed by the Pharmaceutical Industry

Author
item Miller, Robert
item Li, Andrew
item RODRIGUEZ-VIVAS, ROGER - Autonomous University Of Yucatan
item Guerrero, Felicito
item Perez De Leon, Adalberto - Beto

Submitted to: Workshop Proceedings
Publication Type: Proceedings
Publication Acceptance Date: 10/5/2012
Publication Date: 10/10/2012
Citation: Miller, R., Li, A.Y., Rodriguez-Vivas, R.I., Guerrero, F., Perez de Leon, A.A. 2012. Mitigation of Resistance Through Mixtures of Traditional Pesticides, Anti-tick Vaccines, and New Acaricides Developed by the Pharmaceutical Industry. In: Scientific Committee of the VII International Seminar in Animal Parasitology. 1:120-129.

Interpretive Summary: Cattle fever ticks were eliminated from the United States through an eradication program that was established in 1906. Although ticks are presently confined to the U.S.-Mexico border, the maintenance of eradication efforts is based on inspection of all cattle in a permanent quarantine zone and tick control through the use of chemicals when infestations are detected. It has been estimated that if cattle fever ticks were allowed to reenter the U.S. from Mexico the cost to the U.S. cattle industry would be in the billions of dollars per year. The development of pesticide resistance among cattle fever ticks within Mexico is a challenge to the future success of the eradication program. This paper reports the current state of acaricide resistant cattle fever ticks in Mexico and discusses the many tools available to more efficiently control them. Rational decisions can be made using this science-based information to develop integrated programs in Mexico for cattle fever tick control and ideally slow the development of acaricide resistance that threatens the U.S. cattle fever tick eradication program.

Technical Abstract: Over the past 70 years, the southern cattle tick, Rhipicephalus (Boophilus) microplus, has developed resistance to every acaricide available for its control. Recently, populations of R. microplus have evolved simultaneous resistance to multiple classes of acaricides. These multi-resistant populations represent a significant challenge to cattle production especially in Latin America. Research has provided the basis for several tools that can mitigate the difficulties multi-resistant ticks pose to the cattle industry. However, the use of these techniques should be incorporated into a holistic tick control strategy that takes advantage of as many diverse tick control methods as possible. The goal should be to reach a level of acaricide treatment of only 3-4 applications per year where the ticks are endemic. The recommended way to achieve this is through cultural controls, use of resistant cattle breeds, vaccination of cattle with anti-tick vaccines, biological control, environmental modeling, and the strategic use of acaricides.