Prophylactic treatment with flumethrin, a pyrethroid (Bayticol®, Bayer), against Anaplasma phagocytophilum infection in lambs

Stuen Snorre, Enemark, Artursson Karin, Nielsen, Nielsen Bent

Description

Backgroud Anaplasma phagocytophilum (formerly Ehrlichia phagocytophila ) causes the disease tick-borne fever (TBF) in domestic ruminants and has for decades been one of the main scourges for the sheep industry in the coastal areas of Norway. Current control strategies are based on reduction of tick infestation by chemical acaricides. Methods In the present study, we investigated if frequent pour-on applications of pyrethroids would reduce tick infestion rate and seroprevalence of A. phagocytophilum infection in sheep. Forty lambs, one month old, of the Norwegian White Sheep breed were used. The lambs belonged to the experimental sheep flock at the Department of Production Animal Clinical Sciences. None of the lambs had been on I. ricinus infested pasture before turnout (day 0). All lambs were twins and twenty lambs were treated with a pour-on pyrethroid (Bayticol®, Bayer A/S, DK-2300) with a dose of 5 ml on days 0, 14, 28, 42, 56, 70, 84, 98, 112 and 128. Twenty lambs were untreated controls. The lambs were collected every fourteen days on pasture for treatment. In addition, the lambs were examined for ticks, blood sampled, weighed, and rectal temperature was recorded. Results and conclusion A significant reduction in tick infestion rate was detected on treated lambs. However, the present results indicate that frequent acaricide treatment does not reduce the seroprevalence to A. phagocytophilum on tick-infested pasture.

Sujets

• Anaplasma phagocytophilum
• Treatment
• Pyrethroid
• LaMB

Informations

• Publié par: biomed
• Publié le: 01 janvier 2012
• Nombre de lectures: 103
• Langue: English

Extrait

Stuenet al. Acta Veterinaria Scandinavica2012,54:31 http://www.actavetscand.com/content/54/1/31

R E S E A R C HOpen Access Prophylactic treatment with flumethrin, a W pyrethroid (Bayticol, Bayer), againstAnaplasma phagocytophiluminfection in lambs 1* 23 2 Snorre Stuen, Jörg MD Enemark , Karin Arturssonand Bent Nielsen

Abstract Backgroud:Anaplasma phagocytophilum(formerlyEhrlichia phagocytophila) causes the disease tickborne fever (TBF) in domestic ruminants and has for decades been one of the main scourges for the sheep industry in the coastal areas of Norway. Current control strategies are based on reduction of tick infestation by chemical acaricides. Methods:In the present study, we investigated if frequent pouron applications of pyrethroids would reduce tick infestion rate and seroprevalence ofA. phagocytophiluminfection in sheep. Forty lambs, one month old, of the Norwegian White Sheep breed were used. The lambs belonged to the experimental sheep flock at the Department of Production Animal Clinical Sciences. None of the lambs had been onI. ricinusinfested pasture before turnout W (day 0). All lambs were twins and twenty lambs were treated with a pouron pyrethroid (Bayticol, Bayer A/S, DK2300) with a dose of 5 ml on days 0, 14, 28, 42, 56, 70, 84, 98, 112 and 128. Twenty lambs were untreated controls. The lambs were collected every fourteen days on pasture for treatment. In addition, the lambs were examined for ticks, blood sampled, weighed, and rectal temperature was recorded. Results and conclusion:A significant reduction in tick infestion rate was detected on treated lambs. However, the present results indicate that frequent acaricide treatment does not reduce the seroprevalence toA. phagocytophilumon tickinfested pasture. Keywords:Anaplasma phagocytophilum, Treatment, Pyrethroids, Lamb

Background The rickettsiaAnaplasma phagocytophilum(formerly Ehrlichia phagocytophila) causes tickborne fever (TBF) in domestic ruminants, a disease which has also been diagnosed in several other animal species and human beings [13]. In Europe,A. phagocytophilumis mainly transmitted byIxodes ricinusticks. TBF has for decades been one of the main scourges for the sheep industry in the coastal areas of Norway [4]. A serological survey in sheep and wild cervids indicated thatA. phagocytophi luminfection was widespread along the coast of south ern Norway [5,6]. Sheep flocks on tickinfested pastures may suffer heavy losses due to direct mortality. The losses may vary from year to year and from area to area [7]. In one study, 79%

* Correspondence: [e-mail] 1 Department of Production Animal Clinical Sciences, Norwegian School of Veterinary Science, Kyrkjevegen 332/334, N4325 Sandnes, Norway Full list of author information is available at the end of the article

of the lambs that died one year on tickinfested pastures were infected withA. phagocytophilum[8]. However, the severity of disease onI. ricinusinfested pastures is influ enced by several factors, such as questing activity of the ticks, variants ofA. phagocytophilumin the tick popula tion, prevalence of other ticktransmitted pathogens, and host factors such as age, immune status and body condi tion of the animal [4]. Current control strategies are based on the reduction of tick infestation by chemical acaricides. In Europe, this is mostly done by pouron applications of pyrethroids. Nor mally this treatment has to be repeated several times dur ing the grazing season. The most used pyrethroids in W Norway are deltamethrin (Coopersect, Intervet), flume W W thrin (Bayticol, Bayer), cypermethrin (Crovect, Young) W and alphacypermethrin (Dysect, Fort Dodge) (Legemid delverket, personal information). Longacting tetracycline is also used in the UK as a prophylactic measure given be fore animals are moved from tickfree environment into

© 2012 Stuen et al.; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.