American Cattlemen Archives - American Cattlemen

The Horn Fly Threat: How to Identify, Control, and Prevent Infestations

Posted on September 4, 2024September 5, 2024 by Twin Rivers Media

The Horn Fly Threat: How to Identify, Control, and Prevent Infestations

Article and photo courtesy of Central Life Sciences

Did you know that the horn fly is one of the most economically damaging pests of pasture cattle in the United States? Horn flies cost cattle producers approximately $1 billion every year. But how can you fix this problem if you don’t even know what to look for?

Horn flies are the most prevalent and costly external parasites of cattle in North America. The stress caused by horn flies can result in interrupted grazing patterns, leading to impacted milk production and reduced weight gains in cattle. Implementing a horn fly management program with your cattle will help promote overall herd health.

To better help you identify and control horn fly infestations on your operation, Central Life Sciences is here to help keep your cattle comfortable and your profits high.

What is a Horn Fly?

Horn flies are small biting flies with piercing-type mouthparts, which take up to 40 blood meals per day. They are grayish with two stripes on their thorax and are usually found congregating on the backs and sides of cattle.

Horn flies typically only leave the backs of cattle to lay their eggs in fresh manure. These eggs hatch and develop into larvae in the manure and pupate underneath or in the surrounding soil around the manure. After the pupae molt, the adult horn flies emerge to reproduce and feed for up to 4 weeks. While the total life span of horn flies is slightly longer than one month, their populations build quickly, causing explosive infestations in the warmer months.

Signs of Horn Fly Infestations

Flies on the backs of cattle
Twitching
Tail swishing

The economic threshold for horn flies is 200 per cow or 100 per side. When left untreated, fly infestations can rapidly increase to thousands of flies per animal, leading to increased cattle stress that impacts performance. This causes cattle to burn excess energy to combat the flies, reducing grazing time, feed intake and daily gain. These stress behaviors impact weight gain, decreases milk production, milk quality and reproductivity such as conception and breed back timing.

Disease from Horn Flies

Horn flies can also impact cattle health by spreading disease. Horn flies constantly are feeding from the cattle, allowing them to easily transfer disease agents. Horn flies are implicated in transferring heifer mastitis. As they feed on the teats and udders, they are able to transmit the bacteria. The bacteria enter the teat and moves through the quarter, destroying milk-producing tissues. If left untreated, heifer mastitis can affect the heifers’ milk production and life-long productivity before she has her first calf.

How Can Altosid^® IGR Help?

Given the role horn flies play in cow health and conception, implementing preventative fly control strategies are key to protecting your herd and profit from horn flies.

The easiest way to use a preventative control for horn flies is to use a feed-through larvicide or insect growth regulator (IGR), like Altosid^® IGR, which allows the cattle to treat themselves by simply adding it to your current feed or mineral program, reducing both time and labor. Altosid^® IGR is a feed-through larvicide that breaks the life cycle of horn flies by targeting the immature stage before they are able to emerge as adults. The active ingredient, (S)-methoprene, is unique to insects, interrupting the transition into biting adults.

Effective Horn Fly Control with Altosid^® IGR

To ensure success with Altosid^® IGR, implement and follow the tips below. By following the tips outlined, you can help limit the number of horn flies produced on your pastures and impacting your cattle.

For Success:

Begin feeding product with Altosid^® IGR 30 days before the average last frost in the spring
If feeding in free choice feeds such as mineral supplements:

- Put out a 5- to 7-day supply and allow one feeder per 15 to 20 cattle.
- Place near watering or loafing areas.

Monitor feed consumption for a few days. Increase or decrease the number of feeders or move them if necessary to adjust for proper consumption. Ensuring appropriate consumption is key to product effectiveness.

Continue feeding product with Altosid^® IGR for 30 days after the first frost to limit the number of horn flies overwintering and jumpstarting the population in the following spring.

In most years, Altosid^® IGR alone provides excellent season-long control when used as directed. If fly populations exceed acceptable levels or an Altosid^® IGR supplement is started after horn flies are present, use Starbar^® Prolate/Lintox-HD™ Insecticidal Spray & Backrubber for Livestock, Cattle Armor™ 1% Synergized Pour-On, or Inhibidor™ Insecticidal Pour-On to knock back the adult fly population.

While you will never eliminate all flies on cattle, maintaining a fly control program will help keep the horn fly population under the economic threshold, and protect your herd’s health and bottom line. Altosid^® IGR is available in mineral blocks, tubs, liquid feed supplements and as a premix that can be top dressed or mixed into feed. Visit AltosidIGR.com to learn more.

Altosid, Inhibidor, Prolate/Lintox-HD and Starbar are trademarks of Wellmark International.

How to optimize your cattle deworming program?

Posted on August 31, 2024September 1, 2024 by Twin Rivers Media

How to optimize your cattle deworming program?

Three questions to improve ROI potential

By M. Wayne Ayers, DVM, Beef Cattle Technical Consultant, Elanco Animal Health

Beef producers understand how deworming helps to maximize animal health and contributes to operational profitability, but building a strategic deworming program that yields effective results and a positive return on investment can be a tricky task.

Answering three critical questions can help ensure cattle operations are set up for success by decreasing parasite burden and improving weight gain and performance.

1. Do I know what parasites are present?

Understanding what parasites are present in cattle is the first step to success. Of the nearly 15 species of worms that affect U.S. cattle, four parasites are responsible for the most significant economic losses – the brown stomach worm (Ostertagia osteragi), Barber’s pole worm (Haemonchus placei), cattle bankrupt worm (Cooperia spp.) and small stomach worm (Trichostrongylus axei).

Determining which cattle are infected with parasites, what species are represented and at what population level, using species-specific quantitative analysis, will help you choose the most effective deworming product and target the most susceptible cattle for more timely treatment.

2. Do I know which cattle are at the greatest risk?

When assessing your herd, youngstock are at the highest risk and stand to suffer the greatest potential economic loss due to parasitism. Even when subclinical infections occur without visible symptoms, internal parasites can decrease calf performance, including reduced growth rates. This can limit calves’ ability to reach their full genetic potential and can negatively impact an operation’s profitability.

As cattle age and their immune system has a history of parasite interaction, they become less susceptible to infection and other effects of parasites.

It’s also important to practice refugia when considering which cattle to treat. Refugia is a deworming strategy that maintains a low level of untreated sensitive parasite larvae on pastures, reducing selection pressure and resistance development that can result from repeated deworming.

Capitalizing on the ability of mature cattle to develop some degree of immunity to parasitism, Elanco developed a refugia strategy called “4 Score and 3 Years” for cattle. This resistance management strategy calls for mature cattle with a body condition score of greater than 4.5 and older than 3 years of age to remain unexposed to dewormer. All cattle three years of age and younger, regardless of body condition, should be dewormed.

Remember, what’s in the cow is what’s on the pasture, what’s on the pasture is what’s in the calf, and what’s in the calf is what causes economic loss. The “4 Score and 3 Years” strategy helps maintain a parasite pasture population that can be effectively managed in youngstock.

3. Am I using the most effective product?

Evaluating and choosing the dewormer best suited for your operation can be a daunting task.

As generic formulations are added to farm store shelves, it can be tempting to choose the lowest cost option. However, studies have demonstrated potential effectiveness differences between pioneer dewormers and generic formulations.^1,2 These studies raise the question of whether generic formulations are equally effective.

Achieving efficacy while reducing potential resistance development can be a difficult balance to strike, and reduced effectiveness often equals reduced profitability.

Cydectin^® is the pioneer moxidectin cattle dewormer with 25 years of demonstrated effectiveness. It provides broad-spectrum control of both internal and external parasites, including the four most economically significant parasites.

Cydectin’s active ingredient, moxidectin, has a novel molecular structure and is the only macrocyclic lactone class dewormer in the milbemycin subclass. With a lack of new dewormer molecules on the market, producers can reduce the risk of resistance development by leveraging this unique chemistry.

Compared to other common dewormers, Cydectin Pour-On has proven to reduce fecal egg counts and put more dollars in producers’ pockets by numerically increasing weight gain and additional profit per head³.
In one head-to-head study, Cydectin Pour On was proven to be effective in reducing fecal egg counts by 96.6% assessed by a fecal egg count reduction test (FECRT).3 This reduction was statistically (P<0.05) greater than Ivomec (FECRT = 43.6%). The researchers also found the following derived benefits of treating stocker cattle with Cydectin Pour On:

• +60 lbs. and $150/head more than the untreated control*
• +33 lbs. and $82.50/head more than Ivomec® Pour-On* (ivermectin)
• +16 lbs. and $40/head more than Dectomax® Pour-On (doramectin)
• +11 lbs. and $27.50/head more than Eprinex® Pour-On (eprinomectin)

*Significantly greater (P < 0.05)

(Weights with an asterisk are statistically different from Cydectin Pour On at P<0.05. Dollar differences calculated 07March2024 using $2.50/cwt value)

Implementing a strategic and well-rounded deworming program is essential to maintaining the health and productivity of beef cattle. Answering these three important questions ensures your deworming program further contributes to your operation’s profitability and sustainability.

Remember, a healthy herd is a productive herd, and an investment in deworming goes a long way to ensuring the success of your beef cattle business.

Visit CydectinBeef.com or talk to your local Elanco representative about how Cydectin can benefit your strategic deworming protocol.

Related product/portfolio pages

• https://farmanimal.elanco.com/us/beef/products/cydectin-pour-on
• https://campaign.elanco.com/en-us/elanco-cydectin-injectable/
• https://farmanimal.elanco.com/us/beef

Keep Cydectin out of reach of children.

References

¹ Lifschitz A, Sallovitz J, Imperiale F, et al. Pharmacokinetic evaluation of four ivermectin generic formulations in calves. Vet Parasitol. 2004:119(2-3):247-57.
² Yazwinski TA, Tucker CA, Miles DG, et al. Evaluation of generic injectable ivermectin for control of nematodiasis in feedlot heifers. Bov Pract. 46(1):60-65.
³ Williams JC, et al. A comparison of persistent anthelmintic efficacy of topical formulations of doramectin, ivermectin, eprinomectin and moxidectin against naturally acquired nematode infections of beef calves. Vet Parasitol. 1999:85:277-288.

The Threat of Beef Heifer Mastitis

Posted on August 15, 2024August 26, 2024 by Twin Rivers Media

The Threat of Beef Heifer Mastitis

Article and Photo courtesy of Central Life Sciences

Cattlemen know that protecting their cattle operations from threats is essential to remaining profitable and productive. Heifer mastitis in beef herds is a potentially devastating threat for cattle herds, as it can quickly spread and have a significant impact on both animal health and your bottom line. Heifer mastitis, characterized by the inflammation and infection of one or more teats prior to the heifer’s first calf, can destroy the milk-producing tissues within the affected teats and often leads to the development of blind quarters. Blind quarters result in decreased milk production for life and will affect future calf weaning weights.

The first step in protecting your cattle against the damaging threat of heifer mastitis is understanding the disease and the role horn flies play. Then, you can better implement a plan to protect the future of your herd.

The Role of Horn Flies in Mastitis Spread

One of the key contributors to heifer mastitis is the presence of horn flies. These persistent insects are known to feed on the blood vessels in the skin of the teats, causing irritation and transferring mastitis-causing bacteria. Horn flies can carry these harmful bacteria from one animal to another, allowing the bacteria to enter the teat and move throughout the quarter, inflicting damage on the milk-producing tissues. The potential for the rapid spread of mastitis within a herd is supported by the horn fly’s close association with the herd and the need for frequent blood meals.

According to Dr. Steven Nickerson at the University of Georgia, 75% of retained heifer herds surveyed had incidences of heifer mastitis. If the herd had a fly control program, incidents of heifer mastitis dropped by 55%. By implementing an effective fly control program to help prevent cases of mastitis, you can improve the overall health of the herd and protect the future productivity of the heifers.

Implementing Integrated Pest Management (IPM)

An Integrated Pest Management (IPM) plan is a decisive plan to control a pest that incorporates multiple forms of pest control. The IPM can be tailored based on the herd’s needs and limitations of labor, time or cost. The key component to any IPM program is PIE – Plan – Implement – Evaluate. Planning your IPM can start with identifying your unique needs and the target pest. Once a plan is created, implement the IPM for your herd and evaluate it to adjust it as needed effectively. Cattle producers can ensure optimal herd performance and well-being while contributing to a healthier bottom line by utilizing a targeted Integrated Pest Management plan.

To have an effective IPM program, one should include the following tactics:

Evaluate the horn fly population by on-animal counts. While establishing a solid Integrated Pest Management (IPM) program is crucial, monitoring is just as vital. Regularly assessing fly populations on the cattle with population estimates or fly counts allows cattle operators to evaluate and fine-tune their strategies. The economic threshold for horn flies on beef cattle is 200 horn flies per animal. Control methods must be implemented when populations exceed 200 per animal to avoid impacting the herd’s bottom line.
Protect the horn flies’ natural enemies. Avoid spraying general insecticides and limit the use of systemic pour-on endectocides to help conserve the naturally found dung beetles and other predatory beetles that feed on the larvae found in the manure pats. By protecting the horn flies’ natural enemies, cattle producers can utilize biological control as an eco-friendly approach to pest management.
Rotate the Mode of Action. When using topical insecticides like insecticidal ear tags, sprays, and pour-ons, rotate the Mode of Action, not the active ingredient, to avoid contributing to the horn fly populations’ genetic insecticidal resistance.
Be preventative. Use a targeted preventative product, like Altosid® IGR, a labor-free feed-through fly control product.

Targeted Horn Fly Treatment Program

Altosid^® IGR is a feed-through fly-control solution containing the active ingredient (s)methoprene, mimicking a unique biochemical in insects responsible for insect development. When fed to heifers in their daily mineral supplement, Altosid^® IGR moves through the digestive system and treats their manure, effectively controlling the horn fly population by treating where horn flies develop. In more than 30 years of use, there have been no known cases of insecticide resistance to Altosid^® IGR. Altosid^® IGR is effective in controlling horn flies that are resistant to organophosphates and pyrethroids commonly used in conventional topical horn fly control products.

By controlling horn flies, producers can take the first step to reduce the occurrence and impact of heifer mastitis and blind quarters in their herd. By implementing a targeted horn fly treatment program established around the preventative control of Altosid^® IGR, producers can keep cattle healthy and productive now and for years to come.

Trust the first and proven feed-through for horn fly control that delivers proven ROI. For more information, visit AltosidIGR.com.