Partial selective treatment of Rhipicephalus microplus and breed resistance variation in beef cows in Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil

Abstract

Rhipicephalus microplus infestation causes heavy losses in cattle. The majority of farmers control the cattle tick by using long-acting drugs throughout the year, which evidently increases selection pressure for drug resistance. Partial selective treatment (PST) may be used to directly reduce selection pressure by treating only the portion of the herd that is most infested. The objective of this work was to determine the effect of PST in two herds of beef cows and the effect of breed tolerance. The Santiago (n=306 animals) and the São Francisco de Assis (n=204 animals) herds were composed of up to eight pure breeds of Bos taurus and Bos indicus and their crosses and were evaluated during the first and second (8 months) tick generations. Ticks larger than 4.5mm were counted on one side of the animal, and the animals were treated when numbers exceeded 20 ticks per host. On both farms, the tick-tolerant breeds with a high proportion of B. indicus (Braford, Brangus, and Nellore) consistently carried fewer ticks than Charolais. The economical evaluation showed an average profit margin in the use of PST of 674.25% and 1394.5% on the Santiago and São Francisco de Assis farms, respectively, in comparison to all-herd treatment. These results indicate that PST is a reliable tool for health management and may be used as a standard protocol for tick control with significant economic benefits on farms. In addition, the maintenance of the highest possible tolerant/resilient breeds is also an essential factor that should be considered in today's more sustainable animal production systems.