A survey for resistance in cattle ticks to acaricides

A survey was made from late 1976 to late 1977 to determine the extent of resistance to acaricides in the cattle tick Boophilus microplus in Queensland. Questionnaires and requests for samples of ticks were forwarded to more than 900 randomly selected stock owners in the tick infested area which had been divided into 4 regions. Far North, Coastal North, Coastal Cental and South East. The response measured by the number of tick samples tested was 43%. The prevalence of resistance to organophosphorus (OP) compounds was highest in South East where 96% of the farms had OP-resistant ticks and 95% had the Biarra strain and lowest in Far North where 12% of the farms had OP-resistant ticks and 10% had the Biarra strain which was the predominant one in all regions. The highest percentages of the Ridgelands strain (35%) and the Tully strain (30%) occurred in Coastal North. The South East had the highest percentage of Mt Alford (30%). Although chlorinated hydrocarbons were banned for use in control of ticks in 1962, 49% of the farms in South East had some ticks resistant to dieldrin but in Far North it was only 2%. DDT-resistant ticks, which because of cross resistance to synthetic pyrethroids will affect the future use of this group, were present on 8% of the farms in both Coastal North and Coastal Central and 3% in South East and Far North. No resistance to the amidines, chlordimeform, chloromethiuron or amitraz was found.