Abstract
The horn fly, Haematobia irritans, is one of the most economically important pests of cattle. Insecticides have been a major element of horn fly management programs. Growing concerns with insecticide resistance, insecticide residues on farm products, and non-availability of new generation insecticides, are serious issues for the livestock industry. Alternative horn fly control methods offer the promise to decrease the use of insecticides and reduce the amount of insecticide residues on livestock products and give an impetus to the organic livestock farming segment. The horn fly, an obligatory blood feeder, requires the help of microflora to supply additional nutrients and metabolize the blood meal. Recent advancements in DNA sequencing methodologies enable researchers to examine the microflora diversity independent of culture methods. We used the bacterial 16S tag-encoded FLX-titanium amplicon pyrosequencing (bTEFAP) method to carry out the classification analysis of bacterial flora in adult female and male horn flies and horn fly eggs. The bTEFAP method identified 16S rDNA sequences in our samples which allowed the identification of various prokaryotic taxa associated with the life stage examined. This is the first comprehensive report of bacterial flora associated with the horn fly using a culture-independent method. Several rumen, environmental, symbiotic and pathogenic bacteria associated with the horn fly were identified and quantified. This is the first report of the presence of Wolbachia in horn flies of USA origin and is the first report of the presence of Rikenella in an obligatory blood feeding insect.
Highlights
The horn fly, Haematobia irritans, is a hematophagous external parasite of cattle
Rarefaction and Richards maximum predicted curve modeling indicated that .97% of Operational Taxonomic Unit (OTU) at 3% divergence were achieved for each sample [23], which suggests adequate depth of coverage
Identifying and characterizing the microflora associated with arthropod pests of livestock offer the prospect for new avenues to control the insect population and the reduction in the vectorial capacity of the arthropod vector
Summary
The horn fly, Haematobia irritans, is a hematophagous external parasite of cattle. Both male and female horn flies spend their entire life on the host and feed on blood, 24–38 times/day, using their piercing and sucking proboscis [1]. Development of effective non-chemical alternative methods to control the horn fly could reduce the use of insecticides on animals, reduce insecticide residues on livestock products, and boost the organic livestock farming segment. The development of such management strategies necessitates continued research on horn fly biology. A comprehensive understanding of the biology of any insect requires study in an ecological context with microorganisms as an important component of the study system [17]
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