{"id":1602,"date":"2022-05-26T14:00:27","date_gmt":"2022-05-26T17:00:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/pressreleases.scielo.org\/en\/?p=1602"},"modified":"2023-03-28T13:38:13","modified_gmt":"2023-03-28T16:38:13","slug":"latitude-and-seasons-influence-the-tick-count-in-cattle","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pressreleases.scielo.org\/en\/2022\/05\/26\/latitude-and-seasons-influence-the-tick-count-in-cattle\/","title":{"rendered":"Latitude and seasons influence the tick count in cattle"},"content":{"rendered":"

Maria Luiza De Grandi, journalist of Ci\u00eancia Rural, Santa Maria, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Giovani Luis Feltes, Zootechnician, Departamento de Zootecnia, Universidade Federal de Santa Maria (UFSM), Santa Maria, RS, Brazil.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>The tick is one of the main cattle parasites and causes billions of reais in damages every year to national livestock. Researchers from Universidade Federal de Santa Maria (UFSM) in partnership with GenSys Consultores Associados developed a survey to assess the effects of seasons and geographic latitude on tick counts and fur in cattle. The study Genetic and environmental factors that affect tick infestation in Nelore x Angus crossbreed cattle<\/a> is the result of the conclusion work of the zootechnics course at the Universidade Federal de Santa Maria. The results, published in the journal Ci\u00eancia Rural (vol. 51, no. 9), showed that latitude interferes with tick counts. At higher latitudes, that is, farms located further south of the country tend to have less tick infestation. As well as the season of the year, where the lowest infestation occurs in winter and highest in spring.<\/p>\n

To arrive at the results, the researchers used records of animals naturally exposed to ticks on farms in several states in Brazil and Paraguay. To verify the effects of the seasons of the year and latitude on tick counts, the scientists used Analysis of Variance (ANOVA). Tick counts can also be associated with characteristics of the animal’s coat (VER\u00cdSSIMO et al., 2019), and coat is related to thermoregulation and adaptation to the environment (REIMANN et al., 2018). Genetic evaluation was conducted via a Bayesian approach using an animal model for tick counts and fur using different fixed effects to identify the appropriate model for estimating genetic parameters and for use in future genetic evaluations.<\/p>\n

\"Black

Image: Giovani Feltes.<\/em><\/p><\/div>\n

The researchers concluded that spring was the season with the highest average, followed by summer and autumn. Winter had the lowest mean values. Regarding latitude, -11\u00b0 had the highest average value followed by -18\u00b0 latitude. According to scientist Giovani Luis Feltes, it is better to start preventive control of ticks in the first months of spring, because this is the period of greatest infestation. \u201cThe tick infestation is higher on farms with latitudes of -11 and -18, which are in municipalities in the Brazilian Midwest, so producers in this region should be more careful with infestations. And in the practice of genetic evaluations, the companies, or associations responsible must consider the racial composition within the groups of contemporaries for genetic evaluation.\u201d, adds the researcher.<\/p>\n

By quantifying the effect of latitude on tick counts, the research brings some innovation compared to others conducted on the same topic. \u201cOther novelties in this article are the more robust description of the variation in tick counts throughout the seasons and also the suggestion of a model for genetic evaluation of tick and fur counts\u201d, concludes Giovani Luis Feltes.<\/p>\n

Read more<\/h3>\n

REIMANN, F. A. et al<\/em>. Genetic parameters and accuracy of traditional and genomic breeding values for eye pigmentation, hair coat and breed standard in Hereford and Braford cattle. Livestock Science [online]. 2018, vol. 213, pp. 44\u201350 [viewed 25 May 2022]. https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1016\/j.livsci.2018.04.007<\/a>. Available from: https:\/\/www.sciencedirect.com\/science\/article\/abs\/pii\/S1871141318301033<\/a><\/p>\n

VER\u00cdSSIMO, C. J. et al.<\/em> Cattle herd shearing can help to control Rhipicephalus microplus ticks. Experimental and Applied Acarology [online]. 2019, vol. 79, no. 1, pp. 99\u2013106 [viewed 25 May 2022]. https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1007\/s10493-019-00413-0<\/a>. Available from: https:\/\/link.springer.com\/article\/10.1007\/s10493-019-00413-0<\/a><\/p>\n

To read the article, access<\/h2>\n

FELTES, G.L., et al<\/em>. Fatores gen\u00e9ticos e ambientais que afetam a infesta\u00e7\u00e3o de carrapatos em bovinos cruzados Nelore x Angus. Ci\u00eancia Rural [online]. 2021, vol. 51, no. 9, e20200677 [viewed 25 May 2022]. https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1590\/0103-8478cr20200677<\/a>. Available from: https:\/\/www.scielo.br\/j\/cr\/a\/CC6Z3MyDn8Mt5gzCJ9LxbSP\/abstract\/?lang=en<\/a><\/p>\n

Link(s)<\/h3>\n

Giovani Luis Feltes – Redes Sociais: Facebook<\/a> | Instagram<\/a><\/p>\n

Ci\u00eancia Rural – Redes Sociais: Twitter<\/a> | Instagram<\/a> | Facebook<\/a><\/p>\n

Ci\u00eancia Rural: http:\/\/coral.ufsm.br\/ccr\/cienciarural\/<\/a><\/p>\n

Ci\u00eancia Rural \u2013 CR: https:\/\/www.scielo.br\/j\/cr\/<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Being one of the main parasites of cattle, ticks cause losses to livestock farmers. It has been shown that latitude and season interfere with tick counts: higher latitudes tend to have less tick infestation, as well as in winter, while in spring there is a higher infestation. …<\/span> Read More →<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":106,"featured_media":1603,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[3,20,12],"tags":[192,21],"class_list":["post-1602","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-agricultural-sciences","category-cr","category-press-releases","tag-agronomy","tag-ciencia-rural"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressreleases.scielo.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1602","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressreleases.scielo.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressreleases.scielo.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pressreleases.scielo.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/106"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pressreleases.scielo.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1602"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/pressreleases.scielo.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1602\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1606,"href":"https:\/\/pressreleases.scielo.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1602\/revisions\/1606"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pressreleases.scielo.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1603"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressreleases.scielo.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1602"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pressreleases.scielo.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1602"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pressreleases.scielo.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1602"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}