An assessment of host resistance to ticks on cross-bred cattle in Burundi

Groups of cattle of four different cross-breeds (Ankole x Friesian, Ankole x Brown-Swiss, Ankole x Guernsey, Ankole x Sahiwal) plus a group of pure Ankole cattle were immunized against tick-borne diseases: East Coast Fever, using a Theileria parva trivalent vaccine, and anaplasmosis, babesiosis and, subsequently, heartwater. With the exception of two small subgroups of Ankole and Ankole x Sahiwal which were treated by weekly spraying using Delnav, all the groups were exposed to natural field challenge of ticks to quantify the development of host resistance to ticks. The results indicate resistance to the most abundant species, Rhipicephalus appendiculatus, as follows: Ankole > Ankole x Sahiwal > Ankole x Brown Swiss > Ankole x Friesian > Ankole x Guernsey. In both Amblyomma variegatum and Rhipicephalus evertsi evertsi, the manifestation of different levels of resistance between breeds is inapparent. Correlations between total ticks and standard female ticks were good for R.appendiculatus (r = 0.73) and R.evertsi (r = 0.51) but poor for A.variegatum (r = 0.31). Correlations between species were reasonably consistent (r = 0.43-0.59). There was no significant correlation between tick burdens and daily liveweight gain (DLWG) over the whole period of the study. Of the cross-bred groups, Ankole x Sahiwal, which had the highest level of resistance, had the highest DLWG. In contrast, the Ankole x Guernsey which developed the lowest level of resistance had only marginally lower DLWG, the difference being only 8 g/day. During the first period of exposure to ticks, however, the untreated Ankole x Sahiwal group had markedly lower DLWG, which may indicate that the development and manifestation of resistance is at the expense of productivity.