1Department Veterinary Parasitology, Veterinary College and Research Institute, Namakkal, Tamil Nadu Veterinary and Animal Sciences University (TANUVAS), Tamil Nadu, India
2Poultry Disease Diagnosis and Surveillance Laboratory, Namakkal, Tamil Nadu Veterinary and Animal Sciences University (TANUVAS), Tamil Nadu, India
3Department of Veterinary Microbiology, Veterinary College and Research Institute, Namakkal, Tamil Nadu Veterinary and Animal Sciences University (TANUVAS), Tamil Nadu, India
4Department of Veterinary Pathology, Veterinary College and Research Institute, Namakkal, Tamil Nadu Veterinary and Animal Sciences University, India
*Corresponding author: P Anbarasi; E-mail: anburasik@gmail.com
Online Published on 21 September, 2022.
The impact of Haematobia fly menace in dairy cows was studied in cattle farms maintaining different breeds of cattle, located in Namakkal district, Tamil Nadu, India during the month of December 2019. The flies collected from each farm were identified as Haemtobia exigua. The fly avoidance activities include head throws, tail flicks, ear flicks, leg stamps (front and rear), and skin twitches were recorded for one minute and frequency of activities was correlated with fly intensity in animals. The frequency of tail flicks, skin twitches, ear flicks, head throws and leg stamps was 27.5, 20.3, 13.5, 3.0 and 2.8 respectively when the fly population was fairly high and also these activities were found to be higher in evening than morning. Of the 50 cows examined, 40 cows (80.0%) had skin lesions due to fly bites. Animals with dark colour skin had more lesions (90.32%) than medium (75.0%) and animals with light-coloured skin (42.85%). In addition, the prevalence of skin lesion in respect to breed was found to be the high in Jersey cross bred cows (89.18%) followed by Holstein Friesian cross (71.42%), but no such lesions were noticed in Tharparkar (0%) breed. The development of fly bite wound sore in relation to fly intensity in cattle was 85, 75 and 60 % in animals that had high (>150), moderate (100 &150) and low infestation (50 & 100) respectively. Approximately 50-100 flies were found to be sufficient to produce lesions, however the severity of lesions depends on level of infestation.
• The fly avoidance activities were found to be higher frequency in the evening.
• The skin lesions were found to be more in dark skinned animals than medium and light colour.
• The prevalence of skin lesion was high among Jersey cross followed by HF cross, no lesions in Tharparkar.
Haematobia exigua, Buffalo fly, Fly avoidance activities, Skin sore, Eye sore
