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Animal health

Livestock tick control

Livestock tick control

Ticks and tick-borne diseases are widely distributed worldwide, especially in tropical and subtropical regions, where they represent an essential proportion of animal diseases particularly affecting the livelihoods of small-scale producers and endangering sustainable animal production and food security.  

Ticks cause the most significant economic losses to livestock production globally, adversely affecting livestock hosts in several ways. Most importantly, ticks transmit pathogens that cause acute and subclinical tick-borne livestock diseases such as anaplasmosis, babesiosis, theileriosis and heartwater.  

Tick control in the livestock sector is heavily dependent on acaricides. This dependency has resulted in the development of resistance, which has been reported against all acaricidal classes. The ability of ticks to develop resistance against different classes of acaricides is aggravated by malpractices in the application of acaricides, the use of substandard products and the lack of strategies to delay the emergence of resistance.   

In addition to animal health risks and production losses, there are also public health and environmental concerns over acaricide handling and residues. Furthermore, there are misgivings regarding the extensive use of antibiotics to prevent the transmission and control of some of the major tick-borne diseases affecting livestock in the (sub) tropical regions. 

Join the Community of Practice on Acaricide Resistance Management of Livestock Ticks 

The Community of Practice is an inclusive, international and multistakeholder community established by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), which brings together relevant stakeholders from across sectors and disciplines to address challenges, options and possible pathways for the sustainable management of ticks in livestock and acaricide resistance.  

The Community of Practice will strive to meet the following objectives:  

  • Co-create evidence-based knowledge and gaps/actions/priorities identification on the sustainable management of ticks in livestock and acaricide resistance, which adequately reflects the integrated One Health approach.  
  • Networking and information sharing: Provide a venue for gathering stakeholders and facilitating information sharing to enable collaboration between different sectors and disciplines.  
  • Support knowledge dissemination to ensure the spread of knowledge and recommendations, the engagement of all relevant stakeholders across the human-animal-environment interface, awareness and visibility of the issue, and the implementation of actions.