Resistance to the cattle tick, Boophilus microplus in a herd of Australian Illawarra Shorthorn cattle: Its assessment and heritability

Abstract

An Australian Illawarra Shorthorn herd of 24 cows was mated in three consecutive years with an AIS bull. The cows and their progeny were rated for tick resistance at frequent intervals from August 1959 to December 1965 by counting the numbers of semiengorged female ticks on the right side. The mean of log counts for all counts on a particular animal was adopted as the reference value for its degree of susceptibility. The ranking of cattle generally showed a high level of consistency with mean repeatability of counts (r = 0.47, P < 0.01). Discrimination between animals was more reliable (P < 0.01) in summer (r = 0.52) than in winter (r = 0.27). The repeatability of tick counts increased with mean count, from r = 0.27 when the mean count was 3 to r = 0.67 when it was 100. The reliability of counts on the cows decreased with age and with lactation. Supplementary information on a larger herd showed no effect of pregnancy on mean count or on discrimination between susceptible and resistant animals, but showed that there was a partial breakdown of resistance during lactation. In calves infested naturally, no effects of age or sex on tick counts or their repeatability were detected, though male calves yielded significantly larger numbers of ticks than females when infested artificially. The mean yield of mature female ticks on the cows following two artificial infestations with known numbers of larvae ranged from 0.2 to 27.4% of the potential. Natural and artificial assessments of susceptibility were closely correlated. The rank of the bull was similar to that of the more resistant cows. Mean estimates of the heritability of tick resistance based on single counts were 39 % from dam-calf correlations and 49 % from full-sib correlations. Estimates based on summer counts only were 42 and 64% respectively. These results provide strong encouragement for selecting for tick resistance.