Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-g8jcs Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-28T02:29:58.712Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Culture of an organophosphorus-resistant strain of Boophilus microplus (Can.) and an assessment of its resistance spectrum

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 July 2009

R. D. Shaw
R. D. Shaw
Affiliation:
Cooper Technical Bureau, Berkhamsted, Herts.
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

Field observations indicated that a strain of Boophilus microplus (Can.) in the Rockhampton area in Queensland was resistant to an organophosphorus insecticide, dioxathion (applied as Delnav), which had previously controlled it successfully. Ticks of this strain were despatched to the Cooper Technical Bureau in England, where a culture was established and maintained under selective pressure from dioxathion.

The non-parasitic stages of the culture were maintained in an incubator under controlled conditions, and the parasitic stages on cattle in a tick rearing house designed for the purpose. Careful security precautions were taken to ensure that there was no dissemination of tick life outside the confines of the culture. The tick rearing house was provided with double doors, the inner ones of which were screened with copper gauze to prevent the possible transmission of anaplasmosis by biting flies.

The activities of 23 insecticides against larvae of this strain and larvae of a strain of B. microplus susceptible to organophosphorus poisoning were compared. The test method was an immersion technique, usually employing the insecticide in the form of an emulsion. Mortality was assessed 17 hours after treatment. These comparisons indicated that the strain was resistant to the organophosphorus insecticides carbophenothion (62 ×), dioxathion (25 ×), diazinon (15 ×), parathion (10×) and a carbamate, carbaryl (38×). It is suggested that these resistances may be due to a specific mechanism effective against these compounds.

Nine other organophosphorus insecticides, one carbamate and rotenone were subject to low-order resistance by this strain significant at P ≤0·05. This was considered to be non-specific resistance.

Dioxathion had been in use for tick control on the property concerned for four years before resistance was demonstrated. The property is situated in an area where the tick season lasts for ten months. In other parts of the world, dioxathion has been in use against Boophilus ticks for seven years without the development of resistance to it. The length of time resistance has taken to develop suggests that the resistance mechanism is not the expression of a single dominant gene, as has been demonstrated for dieldrin-resistance.

The results suggest that resistance to one or more organophosphorus insecticides will not necessarily prevent the use of other members of this wide and diverse group for tick control. Several of the insecticides shown here to be subject to low-order non-specific resistance are known to be effective tick dips, and one of them, ethion, has been used with success against the resistant strain.

An interesting corollary of the results was that the organophosphorus thions showed greater activity than their corresponding oxons against the susceptible strain.

Type
Research Paper
Information
Bulletin of Entomological Research , Volume 56 , Issue 3 , June 1966 , pp. 389 - 405
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1966

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Abbott, W. S. (1925). A method of computing the effectiveness of an insecticide. —J. econ. Ent. 18 pp. 265–267.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Busvine, J. R. (1959). Patterns of insecticide resistance to organophosphorus compounds in strains of houseflies from various sources—Ent. exp. appl. 2 pp. 58–67.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cooper, F. A. (1962). Delnav (2:3-p-dioxane S-bis-(O,O-diethyl dithiophosphate)) as an ixodicide.—Vet. Rec. 74 pp. 103–113.Google Scholar
Hitchcock, L. F. (1953). Resistance of the cattle tick (Boophilus microplus (Canestrini)) to benzene hexachloride.—Aust. J. agric. Res. 4 pp. 360–364.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hitchcock, L. F. (1955). Studies of the non-parasitic stages on the cattle tick, Boophilus microplus (Canestrini) (Acarina: Ixodidae).—Aust. J. Zool. 3 pp. 295–311.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hitchcock, L. F. & Roulston, W. J. (1955). Arsenic resistance in a strain of cattle tick (Boophilus microplus (Canestrini)) from Northern New South Wales.—Aust J. agric. Res. 6 pp. 666–671.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hoskins, W. M. (1960). Use of the dosage-mortality curve in quantitive estimation of insecticide resistance.—Misc. Publ. ent. Soc. Amer. 2 pp. 85–91.Google Scholar
Hoskins, W. M. & Craig, R. (1962). Uses of bioassay in entomology.–Annu. Rev. Ent. 7 pp. 437–464.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Malone, J. C. (1962). The toxicity of coroxon/phenothiazine and coumaphos/phenothiazine.—Res. vet. Sci. 3 pp. 18–33.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Metcalf, R. L. (1955). Organic insecticides: their chemistry and mode of action.—pp. 251–315. New York, Interscience Pub. Inc.Google Scholar
Norris, K. R. & Stone, B. F. (1956). Toxaphene-resistant cattle ticks (Boophilus microplus (Canestrini)) occurring in Queensland.—Aust. J. agric. Res. 7 pp. 211–226.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Riek, R. F. (1956). Factors influencing the susceptibility of cattle to tick infestation.—Aust. vet. J. 32 pp. 204–209.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Roulston, W. J. (1964). A study of the development of dieldrin-resistance in relation to acaricide pressure in a population of Boophilus microplus.— Aust. J. agric. Res. 15 pp. 490–510.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Shaw, R. D. & Malcolm, H. A. (1964).—Resistance of Boophilus microplus to organophosphorus insecticides.—Vet. Rec. 76 pp. 210–211.Google Scholar
Stiles, G. W. (1942). Anaplasmosis: a disease of cattle.—Yearb. Agric. 1942 pp. 579–587.Google Scholar
Stone, B. F. (1957). Resistance to DDT in the cattle tick Boophilus microplus (Canestrini).—Aust. J. agric. Res. 8 pp. 424–431.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stone, B. F. (1962). The inheritance of dieldrin-resistance in the cattle tick, Boophilus microplus.—Aust. J. agric. Res. 13 pp. 1008–1022.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stone, B. F. & Haydock, K. P. (1962). A method for measuring the acaricide-susceptibility of the cattle tick B'oophilus microplus (Can.)—Bull. ent. Res. 53 pp. 563–578.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tattersfield, F. & Morris, H. M. (1924). An apparatus for testing the toxic values of contact insecticides under controlled conditions.—Bull. ent. Res. 14 p. 223.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Whitehead, G. B. (1958). Acaricide resistance in the blue tick, Boophilus decoloratus (Koch).—Part I.—Bull. ent. Res. 49 pp. 661–673.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Whitehead, G. B. (1959). Pyrethrum resistance conferred by resistance to DDT in the blue tick.— Nature, Lond. 184 no. 4683 pp. 378–379.CrossRefGoogle Scholar