Ticks

Also: cattle tick, Rhipicephalus, tick fever

Ticks are small blood-feeding relatives of spiders that attach to the skin of cattle. Heavy loads cause loss of blood and condition and damage hides, and ticks carry diseases such as babesiosis and anaplasmosis, together called tick fever, and East Coast fever. The cattle tick Rhipicephalus microplus, of tropical and subtropical regions, is one of the costliest parasites of livestock worldwide. Zebu cattle generally carry far fewer ticks than taurine cattle, partly through grooming and skin reactions, which is a main reason zebu and zebu crosses are favoured in northern Australia and much of the tropics. Dipping and pour-on treatments are used, though ticks resist many chemicals.

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