Abstract

HERNANDEZ GARCIA, Anaid Ireri; GARCIA VAZQUEZ, Zeferino; VAZQUEZ-PELAEZ, Carlos Gustavo  and  TAPIA PEREZ, Graciela Guadalupe. Development of a spreadsheet program to obtain the economic threshold of acaricides as a support in the control of the cattle tick Rhipicephalus microplus. Rev. mex. de cienc. pecuarias [online]. 2018, vol.9, n.1, pp.147-161. ISSN 2448-6698.  https://doi.org/10.22319/rmcp.v9i1.4518.

The aim of the study was to develop a simulation program in spreadsheets using Excel® to estimate the economic thresholds of acaricides used in the Rhipicephalus microplus tick control. The economic threshold is the population density of the parasite with which the decision is made to initiate a control action that prevents a loss greater than the cost of the intervention. Parameters used by the program are: number, price and weight of cattle, number of people applying the treatment and their income, number of applications per year and the supplies of each product. A total of 10,000 simulations were carried out with five different families of acaricides to obtain economic thresholds using losses of 1.37 and 1.18 kg per tick for two genetic types of cattle and i = 1,2,3 ..., 500 ticks, resistance (30 %) and without resistance. The thresholds obtained by the program, with 100 % and 70 % effectiveness of the acaricides were 46 and 158 ticks respectively, the average difference of live weight loss between B. taurus and its cross with zebu was 1.33 g. When the effectiveness of the product decreases, and acaricide is applied to a population of ticks before reaching the economic threshold, there are monetary losses, so it is desirable to know the resistance of R. microplus and the economic threshold in each farm.

Keywords : Economic thresholds; Cattle tick; Simulation program; Rhipicephalus microplus.