Efficacy of a water-based botanical acaricide formulation applied in portable spray box against the southern cattle tick, Rhipicephalus (Boophilus) microplus (Acari: Ixodidae), infesting cattle

Abstract

Ectoparasitism result in annual losses to livestock producers estimated to reach billions of dollars in tropical and subtropical parts of the world where the southern cattle tick, Rhipicephalus (Boophilus) microplus, is established because this invasive pest is also a vector of pathogens causing bovine babesiosis and anaplasmosis. Reintroduction of R. microplus could be economically devastating for the cattle industry in the United States. Novel technologies are necessary to manage populations of R. microplus that are resistant to multiple classes of synthetic chemicals widely used as acaricides to control ticks infesting livestock, and to mitigate the environmental impact of these synthetic acaricides. Bioassays with a water-based formulation of a commercially available botanical acaricide (Essentria® IC3) at 6.25 % against a laboratory strain of R. microplus was 100 % lethal against unfed larvae, and 94 % mortality was recorded against engorged female ticks. These results prompted documentation of efficacy on infested cattle using an acaricide delivery system mimicking field conditions, which is required to consider the use of a product by integrated tick management programs. Twelve tick naïve cattle were artificially infested with unfed larvae on days -19, -12 and -5. On day -2, ticks from the left-side of the body of each animal were manually counted. Depending on pre-treatment tick counts the animals were assigned into three separate treatment groups: i) water (untreated control); ii) coumaphos 0.3 % in water (positive control); and iii) botanical acaricide 6.25 % in water. Five days after the last infestation, cattle were doused in a spray box and moved to individual stalls to collect tick data for calculation of treatment efficacy. The percentage control, based on the reproduction of surviving engorged female ticks after treatment with the 6.25 % Essentria in water-based spray was 70 % against R. microplus. Coumaphos treatment had a mean percent control of 100 %. Whereas this application of Essentria® IC3 cannot be recommended as a stand-alone method to eradicate R. microplus, the 6.25 % botanical acaricide water-based spray could be part of integrated tick management to control populations of R. microplus resistant to organophosphates like coumaphos and other classes of commercially available synthetic acaricides.