Location: Livestock Arthropod Pest Research Unit
Project Number: 3094-10400-002-000-D
Project Type: In-House Appropriated
Start Date: Oct 1, 2024
End Date: Sep 30, 2029
Objective:
Objective 1: Improve and develop surveillance and monitoring methods to more efficiently apply measures for controlling invasive/exotic tick populations that are pests of livestock and wildlife.
Sub-objective 1.A: Increase understanding of invasive tick ecology and interactions with the environment including alternative hosts.
Objective 2: Exploit tick biology, behavior, and ecology to develop and improve management techniques for controlling invasive/exotic ticks including novel acaricides, repellants, attractants, and genetic approaches such as vaccines and gene silencing.
Sub-objective 2.A: Identify the function of unique targets within the tick for development of novel control strategies such as gene silencing, vaccines, and biopesticides.
Sub-objective 2.B: Characterize tick cholinesterases and define their role in impacting the immune response at the tick-host interface.
Objective 3: Devise and assess methods to deploy newly developed control strategies such as novel acaricides, repellants, attractants, biocontrol agents, vaccines and gene silencing for controlling invasive/exotic ticks on livestock and wildlife hosts.
Objective 4: Understand the impact of changing climate on the range, movement, and suitable habitat of invasive/exotic tick pests of livestock and wildlife including the lone star tick, Asian longhorned tick, winter tick, and tropical bont tick to reduce their impact on production.
Sub-objective 3.A: Evaluate delivery technologies to enhance the use of RNAi-based biopesticides targeting ticks.
Sub-objective 3.B: Evaluate antigen delivery platforms for anti-tick vaccine candidates that have potential for protection against multiple tick species.
Sub-objective 3.C: Investigate desiccant dust-based acaricides as a tool for integrated management of tick ectoparasites on cattle.
Objective 4: Understand the impact of changing climate on the range, movement, and suitable habitat of invasive/exotic tick pests of livestock and wildlife including the lone star tick, Asian longhorned tick, winter tick, and tropical bont tick to reduce their impact on production.
Sub-objective 4.A: Explore cold-stress in a three-host tick to identify possible genetic signatures contributing to survivorship.
Sub-objective 4.B: Explore heat-stress in a one-host tick to identify possible genetic signatures contributing to survivorship.
Approach:
Ticks that parasitize livestock and wildlife pose a continuing threat to animal and human health worldwide. Tick infestations of livestock impact animal production both directly (e.g., decreased weight gain and milk production) and indirectly (e.g., disease causing pathogens transmitted by ticks, treatment costs), collectively resulting in annual economic losses that can exceed USD $700 million. Further, the expanding distribution of both native and invasive ticks in the US is a significant concern. The overall goal of our project is to provide tools and technologies that directly assist producers and the public with more effectively combatting these tick species on a regional and national level. Ticks on livestock have traditionally been managed by acaricide application, but more environmentally conscious alternatives are needed for inclusion within integrated tick management programs. Surveillance and monitoring of current tick diversity and distribution are critical, especially given the projected changes in future climatic variables that will likely alter biotic and abiotic factors that drive tick population success. Using a multi-disciplinary approach, we will: evaluate the role of understudied hosts in sustaining tick populations; identify targets in the tick that can be used to develop cross-species tick control technologies; evaluate methods for the delivery of tick control technologies; and explore whether genetic signatures of tick thermal tolerance could be used as a feasible tool to predict a species’ potential for range expansion. The outcomes of our research will broadly inform strategies that reduce the negative impacts of all major ticks of livestock and provide viable tools for our producers and the public.