Survey of cattle tick, Riphicephalus (Boophilus) microplus, resistance to amitraz and deltamethrin in New Caledonia

The evolution of tick resistance to acaricides in New Caledonia was followed in two ways: through two large scale surveys in 1998 and 2014 and through the routine analysis of samples of ticks with suspected resistance. The results of the two approaches were qualitatively similar though analysis of ticks with suspected resistance gave higher frequencies of resistance, as expected of a biased sample. Resistance tests using a larval packet test have been conducted since 1993 for deltamethrin and 2003 for amitraz. Deltamethrin was used in country-wide control from 1986 to 2003 and amitraz since 1996. This study analyzed the variation of resistance parameters such as lethal concentration 50 (LC50) and the resistance factor over 21 years for deltamethrin and LC99 over 11 years for amitraz. There was an increase in deltamethrin's annual mean LC50 from 1993 to 2004 when it reached 2.9 g/l and then a progressive decrease, reaching a level consistently below 1g/l since 2007. Even though breeders stopped using deltamethrin in New Caledonia in 2003, the percentage of susceptible strains has remained below 30% since 1998. Amitraz's LC99 mean increased significantly from 0.31 g/l in 2003 to 2.96 g/l in 2014. Whereas all tested strains in 2003 were susceptible, only 40% of strains tested at the request of farmers were susceptible in 2014. The recent territory-wide survey showed that 76.7% of strains are still susceptible. This study established that resistance to amitraz has developed slowly in New Caledonia. A reversion phenomenon may have occurred concerning deltamethrin resistance, visible through the decrease of LC50 mean and the decreased proportion of very resistant strains; however the proportion of susceptible strains remains at a low level and there is anecdotal evidence that high resistance can re-emerge rapidly.