Tick research advances at the USDA - ARS Knipling-Bushland U.S. Livestock Insects Research Laboratory

Authors: Perez De Leon, Adalberto - Beto

Submitted to: Entomological Society of America Annual Meeting
Publication Type: Abstract Only
Publication Acceptance Date: 11/17/2020
Publication Date: N/A
Citation: N/A

Interpretive Summary: The Knipling-Bushland United States Livestock Insects Research Laboratory of the USDA-ARS includes the Livestock Arthropod Pest Research Unit (LAPRU). LAPRU’s mission is to provide the USDA Cattle Fever Tick Eradication and Screwworm Eradication Programs, the United States (U.S.) cattle industry, and the public, innovative systems benefiting from genomics science and remote sensing for the elimination or progressive control of invasive ticks, the New World Screwworm, and blood-feeding flies of veterinary and medical importance. This is accomplished through domestic and international partnerships comprising research for sustainable area-wide tick management involving the Veterinary Pest Genomics Center, an ARS initiative leveraging big data solutions to evaluate risk from and develop mitigations for invasive and other economically important veterinary pests. Recent tick research advances at the USDA - ARS Knipling-Bushland U.S. Livestock Insects Research Laboratory were highlighted during this presentation.

Technical Abstract: The Knipling-Bushland United States Livestock Insects Research Laboratory of the USDA-ARS includes the Livestock Arthropod Pest Research Unit (LAPRU). LAPRU’s mission is to provide the USDA Cattle Fever Tick Eradication and Screwworm Eradication Programs, the United States (U.S.) cattle industry, and the public, innovative systems benefiting from genomics science and remote sensing for the elimination or progressive control of invasive ticks, the New World Screwworm, and blood-feeding flies of veterinary and medical importance. This is accomplished through domestic and international partnerships comprising research for sustainable area-wide tick management involving the Veterinary Pest Genomics Center, an ARS initiative leveraging big data solutions to evaluate risk from and develop mitigations for invasive and other economically important veterinary pests. Safer acaricides active against cattle fever ticks (CFT) and other tick species were identified. Novel targets were discovered, and mechanism-based screens developed through functional genomics to select new chemical entities affecting ticks specifically. A coalition with stakeholders enabled the use of an anti-CFT vaccine by the CFTEP. Models and field studies helped understand how the livestock-wild ungulate interface influences the pathogenic landscape for CFT along the south Texas–northeast Mexico transboundary region. All this information was integrated to execute research protocols aiming to adapt CFT eradication and control strategies in the US and in Puerto Rico, respectively, in the context of global change. This knowledge was translated to assist with the response to the detection outside of quarantine in the U.S. of the longhorned tick in 2017.