Getting Ticked Off By The Same Old Pest
AUSTRALIA - Cattle producers in tick prone areas may one day vaccinate their stock against this costly pest.
26 November 2007
2 minute read
Costing the northern beef industry $175 million dollars a year in lost productivity, researchers from the Beef CRC have labelled the cattle tick (Boophilus microplus) public enemy number one.
The research team, led by Queensland Department of Primary Industries and which including collaborators from the University of Queensland, WA's Centre for Comparative Genomics at Murdoch University, and the United States Department of Agriculture, are hoping to develop a single, annual vaccination which provides strong immunity to cattle ticks.
While some breeds like Brahmans have a higher immunity to ticks none have 100 percent immunity.
Project immunologist Dr Louise Jackson of the Queensland Department of Primary Industries and Fisheries sets out to discover whether there might be a genetic or cellular trait - or group of them - which can be identified and then utilized in vaccine development.
Dr Jackson says the research is being done on a group of Santa Gertrudis cattle which have never before been exposed to ticks. "These cattle have been selected as a test-case due to the wide variation of tick resistance in the breed. In the test group, resistance ranges between 80 and 98 percent, a close reflection of the resistance range of the breed as a whole," says Dr Jackson.
The research involves regularly taking blood samples and skin biopsies. These samples are analysed to see whether there are cellular or genetic differences between susceptible and resistant animals which may then point to the underlying process for tick resistance in cattle.
At the other end of the research spectrum, Dr Ala Lew (Project Leader) says we are identifying novel tick genes using a 'reverse vaccinology' approach. "We are screening genes and sequences from ticks to determine their effect on the bovine immune system. Those tick genes that can re-direct the immunity of susceptible cattle to a more favourable resistance pattern will be selected as potential vaccine candidates. The objective of that is to have a commercially viable product to control ticks made available to the beef industry by 2012," says Dr Lew.
A vaccine would also assist the northern cattle industry in its quest for improved meat quality and offer extensive opportunities for the international marketing of Australian beef. "Tick resistant British breed cattle could then be used more freely in the areas they currently struggle in," says Dr Jackson.
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