Excluding feral swine, javelinas, and raccoons from deer bait stations

• Published in: Human-wildlife interactions Vol. 6; no. 1; pp. 169 - 177
• Main Authors: Pound, J. Mathews, Lohmeyer, Kimberly H., Davey, Ronald B., Soliz, Liza A., Olafson, Pia U.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Jack H. Berryman Institute 2012
• Subjects: Babesia bovis; Blood; Boophilus annulatus; Cattle; Cervidae; deer; Eggs; Feeds; Fever; horses; Ixodidae; Larvae; Life cycle; Molting; Odocoileus virginianus; Rhipicephalus; Ruminantia; Techniques; USA, Texas; USA, Florida
• ISSN: 2155-3858; 2155-3874

In a campaign lasting from 1907 to the present, cattle ticks (Rhipicephalus [Boophilus] annulatus) and southern cattle ticks (R. [B.] microplus) collectively referred to as cattle fever ticks (CFT), were eradicated from areas in the United States (Pound et al. 2010). These ticks transmit Babesia bovis and B. bigemina, which are the causative agents in cattle of the potentially fatal protozoan disease commonly known as Texas fever, cattle fever, or bovine piroplasmosis. The ticks are a 1-host species that attach themselves to an individual host as larvae and feed on the hosfs blood, molt to nymphs that feed again, and, subsequently, develop to adults. Adults mate on the host, then, females engorge with blood, detach, and drop to the ground where they lay a clutch of several thousand eggs. The eggs hatch into larvae that attach themselves to host animals, and the life cycle continues. These ticks are host-specific (Sonenshine 1993) and will feed successfully only on large ruminants (Sonenshine et al. 2002), including cattle, cervids, and equines (e.g., horses and mules). While individual ticks occasionally are found attached opportunistically to swine, canines, felines, ovines, caprines, and other nonruminants, they are unable to feed and develop sufficiently to produce gravid females. Therefore, the only hosts that were initially considered to be important in the tick eradication effort were cattle, horses, and mules (George 1990). It was not until eradication efforts failed because of high densities of white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) in South Florida that deer were considered to be important alternative hosts. Cattle ticks were finally eradicated in Florida, but only after extensive depopulation of deer herds.