Hatchability of eggs of deltamethrin and amitraz resistant cattle tick Rhipicephalus microplus of Maharashtra state on treatment with acaropathogenic fungus Metarhizium anisopliae

Abstract

Taking into an account the high prevalence of ticks and tick born diseases (TTBDs) in cattle, reflections of indiscriminate use of chemical acaricides in the form of environmental contamination, toxicity and development of acaricide resistance and researcher’s inclination towards eco-friendly alternative to chemical acaricides in India, a project was designed with an aim to evaluate non-chemical approach acaropathogenic fungus Metarhizium anisopliae for the control of acaricide resistant strain of cattle tick Rhipicephalus microplus from north Maharashtra region of the state. Acaropathogenic fungus M. anisopliae against resistant R. microplus tick revealed significant reduction in hatchability rate upto 51.06 % in untreated eggs of treated females and 70.89 % in treated eggs of untreated females of resistant tick isolate. The results indicated that the direct exposure of eggs to the conidia reduced hatchability to considerable level.