DETECTION OF BM86 ANTIGEN IN DIFFERENT STRAINS OF BOOPHILUS-MICROPLUSAND EFFECTIVENESS OF IMMUNIZATION WITH RECOMBINANT BM86

The control of tick populations by using conventional strategies poses several problems, including the appearance of organophosphate resista nt strains, among others. The possibility of using alternative strateg ies such as vaccination with tick antigens has been suggested by sever al authors. One particular antigen (Bm86) has been described and shown to be able to induce a protective immunity against the cattle tick Bo ophilus microplus. In this paper we demonstrate by means of immunohist ochemical staining that this antigen is conserved among several strain s of this species. These results correlate with those showing that ani mals vaccinated with a preparation of recombinant Bm86 were protected against challenge with the four different strains tested including one resistant to organophosphates. These results favour the immunization with recombinant Bm86 for the control of the cattle rick B. microplus.