Implementation of strategic control of the cattle tick Rhipicephalus (Boophilus) microplus in dairy cattle farms in the region of Bragança Paulista - São Paulo - SP - Brazil

Abstract

The cattle were one of the five main clusters of supply chains in the agribusiness exports from São Paulo in the first half of 2010 with trade surplus of $3.47 billion. The São Paulo Department of Agriculture has focused on the strategy development in the quality system in the areas of food safety and animal health by encouraging the farms to avoid the use of chemical acaricides, herbicides and anthelmintics. The cattle tick Rhipicephalus (Boophilus) microplus causes great harm to the national livestock due to decreased milk production, weight loss of the cattle, transmission of several disease-causing pathogens to the host and depreciation of the leather. The control of ectoparasites has been restricted to the use of chemicals, which exposes to risk of contamination of the environment, humanity and the development of resistant strains of ticks. The strategic control system consists on the concentration of the acaricide treatment in a particular time of year so that, during the rest of the year, the tick population remains at economically feasible leaves of infestation without the use of acaricide treatments. Moreover, it avoids the selection pressure for the resistance of ticks to acaricides, reduction on the expenses with acaricides, workforce, problems of human, animal and environmental contamination. Among the projects that are developed by the CATI (Coordenadoria de Assistência Técnica Integral), from the Department of Agriculture, there is the Catileite, which is a technical assistance program that aims to produce milk profitably by recommending an intensive production method. This study aims to join the Catileite strategic control of the cattle tick with a weekly monitoring visit by the technicians from the Cati and the Biological Institute in 12 dairy cattle farms located in the Region of Bragança Paulista. This project should last 2 years. (AU)