Integrated control of acaricide-resistant Boophilus microplus populations on grazing cattle in Mexico using vaccination with Gavac™ and amidine treatments

Throughout most of the twentieth century, tick infestations on cattle have been controlled with chemical acaricides, typically administered by dipping or spraying. This approach can cause environmental and residue problems and has created a high incidence of acaricide resistance within tick populations in the field. Recently we developed a vaccine against Boophilus microplus employing a recombinant Bm86 antigen preparation (Gavac)(TM), (Heber Biotec S.A., Havana, Cuba) which has been shown to induce a protective response in vaccinated animals. Here we show for the first time under field conditions a near 100% control of B. microplus populations resistant to pyrethroids and organophosphates, by an integrated system employing vaccination with Gavac(TM) and amidine treatments. This method effectively controls tick infestations while reducing the number of chemical acaricide treatments and consequently the rise of B. microplus populations resistant to chemical acaricides.