TICK CONTROL STRATEGIES IN DAIRY PRODUCTION MEDICINE

Ticks are economically the most important pests of cattle and other domestic species in tropical and subtropical countries. they are the vectors of a number of pathogenic microorganisms including protozoans (babesiosis, theileriosis), rickettsiae (anaplasmosis, ehrlichiosis, typhus), viruses (e.g., kyasanur forest disease reported from karnataka state of india; crimean-congo hemorrhagic fever reported time and again from pakistan), bacteria (e.g., pasteurella, brucella, listeria, staphylococcus) and spirochaetes (barnett, 1961; jongejan and uilenberg, 2004). the only food for the ticks is blood. they are voracious blood suckers; loss of blood for their rapid development impoverishes the hosts. in heavy infestation cattle must have more feed merely to meet the demands of the parasites; the growth of young animals is retarded, and they may remain thin, weak and stunted. in dairy cows, milk production is greatly reduced. ticks belonging to genus ixodes and ornithodorus lahorensis are associated with tick paralysis which is a specific type of intoxication, resulting from the injection of a toxin by certain instars of ticks usually the adult females but sometimes by nymphs. sweating sickness is a disease of cattle and other domestic species which occurs in south, central and east africa.