Volume: 55 Issue: 3
Year: 2024, Page: 616-622, Doi: https://doi.org/10.51966/jvas.2024.55.3.616-622
Received: March 12, 2024 Accepted: May 6, 2024 Published: Sept. 30, 2024
The increasing incidence of tick-borne diseases and the growing resistance to conventional acaricides underscore the urgent need for innovative and sustainable tick management strategies. This study investigates the potential of assembly and sex pheromones for the control of larval stages of Rhipicephalus sanguineus, the brown dog tick, which poses significant health risks to dogs. The ticks were collected from various canine hosts in Thrissur, Kerala and subjected to Petri-dish bioassays using vapour patches impregnated with synthetic assembly pheromone (AP) and sex pheromone (SP), both individually and in combination. The efficacy of these semiochemicals was assessed based on the attraction and clustering behaviour of unfed larvae and partially fed adult ticks over a 24-hour period. Results demonstrated a significantly higher attraction to AP-impregnated patches, with notable efficacy observed in causing tick aggregation, particularly beyond 30 min of exposure. While SP also showed potential in attracting ticks, the combination of SP and AP did not result in a synergistic effect. The study highlights the potential of using semiochemicals as an environmentally sustainable alternative to traditional acaricides, highlighting their role in integrated pest management strategies
Keywords: Rhipicephalus sanguineus, adenine, guanine, xanthine, 2,6-DCP, Petri-dish bioassay
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© 2024 Basheer et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
Basheer, E.H., Lakshmanan, B., Sethulekshmi, M.J., Rajagopal, A., Athira, C.P., Nair, S.N., Priya, M.N. and Devada, K. 2024. In vitro assessment of assembly and sex pheromones in the control of larval stages of brown dog ticks. J. Vet. Anim. Sci. 55 (3):616-622