Prospects for Innovative Tick Control Methods in Africa

Abstract

Ticks, and the diseases they transmit, are of great economic and medical importance worldwide, and especially in Africa, where they are considered to be the greatest animal disease problem. The four major genera of ticks are Amblyomma, Rhipicephalus, Hyalomma and Boophilus. Ticks harm their animal hosts by sucking their blood thus reducing growth rate and milk yield, cause mechanical damage to hides and skins causing tick worry, introduce toxins and predispose the animals to myasis. Theileriosis, cowdriosis and dermatophilosis are the major tick-borne and tick-associated diseases of grazing cattle in Africa. The conventional method of tick control is the application of chemical acaricides, but it is associated with a number of problems including environmental pollution, chemical residues in meat and milk products as well as in wool, development of tick resistance and high cost. Some of the alternatives to chemical control of ticks that are available in Africa are discussed in this paper.Resume-Les tiques et les maladies qu'elles transmettent sont d'une grande importance economique et medicale dans le monde, et plus particulierement en Afrique, ou elles sont considerees comme le principal probleme sanitaire du bitail. Les quatre principaux genres de tiques sont Amblyomma, Rhipicephalus, Hyalomma et Boophilus. Les tiques nuisent a la sante de leur hote en sugant leur sang, ce qui se traduit par une reduction du taux de croissance et de la production laitiere. Ils sont responsables d'alterations du cuir et de l'epiderme provoquant des lesions, injectent des toxines et predisposent les animaux aux myases. La theileriose, la cowdriose et la dermatophilose sont les principales maladies des animaux de pSturage transmises par les tiques en Afrique. La methode traditionnelle de controle des tiques est l'application d'acaricides chimiques mais elle s'accompagne de nombreux effets secoridaires, parmi lesquels une pollution de l'environnement, la presence de residus chimiques dans la viande et le lait ainsi que dans la laine, le developpement de resistance chez les tiques et un cout eleve. Quelques unes des alternatives au controle chimique des tiques disponibles en Afrique sont presentees dans cette publication.

Protection of Metarhizium anisopliae conidia from ultra-violet radiation and their pathogenicity to Rhipicephalus evertsi evertsi ticks

“…Promising results have been reported for the potential of the entomopathogenic fungus Metarhizium anisopliae to serve as a bio-control agent of ticks (Kaaya et al 1996;Kaaya 2000Kaaya , 2003Kaaya and Hassan 2000). The formulation in which the conidia are suspended is known to inXuence the eYcacy of the fungus (Burges 1998;Kaaya and Hassan 2000).…”

An aqueous extract of Maerua edulis (Gilg & Ben) DeWolf tuber is as effective as a commercial synthetic acaricide in controlling ticks on cattle in vivo

“…Effects of ticks are not limited to diseases alone but they also suck blood and can cause ear and teat damage in cattle. Additionally, they can cause tick "worry" and are generally associated with weight loss and reduced productivity of the animals (Kaaya and Knapp, 2003;Estrada-Peña and Salman, 2013).…”

“…Economically, tick control programmes can take up a significant proportion of the national fiscus (Taylor, 2001; Kaaya and Knapp, 2003;Bowman et al, 2004;Rajput et al, 2006;Mapholi et al, 2014). Globally, the cost of controlling ticks is estimated to range between 13.9 -18.7 billion US dollars (Estrada-Peña and Salman, 2013).…”

<i>In vitro</i> antibacterial activity of crude methanol extracts of various parts of <i>Parthenium hysterophorus</i> against pathogenic bacterial strains

“…Since ancient times, plants have been indispensable sources of both preventive and curative traditional medicine preparations for human and livestock (Areaya Hailamariam et al, 2015), whereby the majority of farmers and pastoralists in the developing countries rely on medicinal plants or ethno-veterinary medicine practices (EVM) (Kaaya, 2003;Matlebyane et al, 2010). Numerous biochemical compounds obtained from such plants possess important antimicrobial properties (Abdallah, 2011) and preferred over synthetic drugs and considered safe to humans (Rakholiya et al, 2013).…”