Prevalence, Immune response and control of Stomoxys spp. of flies

Abstract

A detailed study on the prevalence, biology, immune response and control of Stomoxys spp. of flies was conducted. The prevalence study on Stomoxys fly infestation on cattle of Thrissur, during June 1999 to May 2000 showed a higher incidence (>90 per cent) during the months of June, July, August and September than in other months. The prevalence increased as temperature decreased and humidity and rainfall increased. The fly infesting cattle was identified. as Stomoxys calcitrans. The biology of the fly was studied in laboratory and were fed with citrated bovine blood. The use of horse dung as oviposition and larval development medium was found to be satisfactory. The life cycle parameters of the fly were also noted. The thoracic muscle antigen prepared from pharate adult fly was used for immunization. Agar gel precipitation test and counter immuno electrophoresis revealed a single clear precipitation line. The passive haemagglutination assay revealed an antibody titre of 1024, on days 21 st and 28th of immunization. Feeding the normal flies with blood from immunized rabbit produced a cumulative mortality of 100 per cent on day 20 against 66.7 per cent mortality in flies fed with control rabbit blood. Abnormal effects like wing paralysis was noted in test group. The insecticidal property of Deltamethrin, Diazinon, Carbaryl and Ethofenprox were evaluated against stable fly infestation and was found that Deltamethrin (0.0025 per cent) was highly effective in controlling flies. At 0.005 per cent concentration Deltamethrin gave better protection. Diazinon (0.3 per cent) and Carbaryl (0.1 per cent) failed to provide good protection after one day post treatment. Ethofenprox (0.002 per cent) was found to be least effective.