SIMULATION OF CONTROL STRATEGIES FOR THE CATTLE TICK BOOPHILUS-MICROPLUS EMPLOYING VACCINATION WITH A RECOMBINANT BM86 ANTIGEN PREPARATION

Current strategies for the control of the cattle tick Boophilus microp lus include the use of chemicals as the principal control method, Thes e methods, however, have met with partially successful results, The re cent development of immunological methods for the control of the cattl e tick has opened new possibilities for the design of control strategi es, Employing the results obtained by us in experiments testing the ef fect of vaccination with the recombinant vaccine, Gavac(TM) (Heber Bio tec S.A.), on tick populations, we have developed a model to evaluate, through a computer program, the efficacy of the vaccine as a control method, The action of the vaccine on the control of tick populations w as simulated and the specific serum antibody titers required to decrea se the tick population in the field were calculated, The specific seru m antibody titer required to decrease the tick population in the field after the first vaccination scheme was found to be greater than or eq ual to 57 200 and the antibody titer required to maintain this effect when the vaccine is already acting and after successive revaccinations was found to be greater than or equal to 27 500. Considerations about revaccination schemes and combination between vaccination and acarici de treatments as possible control strategies are discussed.