Bioeconomic simulation of Rhipicephalus microplus infestation in different beef cattle production systems in the Brazilian Cerrado
Introduction
Every year, new tick species are documented around the planet, where so far more than 920 species have been described (Garcia et al., 2019). It is important to note that most species have a regional distribution. Cattle in Asia, Australia and Central and South America are affected by members of the tick R. microplus complex, whereas cattle across Africa are affected by species from (Rhipicephalus, Amblyomma and Hyalomma) all three genera (Guglielmone et al., 2010). About 80% of the world's cattle are at risk of ticks and tick-borne diseases both of which cause significant production losses (Burrow et al., 2019). Infestation of cattle by these species has a direct impact on production, such as, weight loss and decreased milk production (Reck et al., 2014; Andreotti et al., 2019; Burrow et al., 2019) as well as indirect effects of diseases caused by tick-borne pathogens (Honer and Gomes, 1990; Burrow et al., 2019; Bonatte Jr et al., 2019). In Brazil, the tick fauna is currently composed of 75 species (Labruna et al., 2020; Muñoz-Leal et al., 2020; Onofrio et al., 2020). One of the species that arouses the most interest in the scientific community and is an important bottleneck faced by ranchers in the cattle production system, whether of beef or dairy cattle, is the tick R. microplus (Garcia et al., 2019).
The R. microplus tick has a life cycle with two phases: parasitic and free-living, and its development depends on climatic conditions that can vary between regions and seasons (Garcia et al., 2019). In the parasitic phase, its life cycle is approximately 21 days (Pereira and Costa, 2014), and it is the phase in which the main economic losses occur in cattle, which is its main host. Knowledge about the biology, behavior and population dynamics of this tick in the pasture environment (Garcia et al., 2019), where ectoparasite, host and environment generally interact (Pereira, 2008), is of paramount importance, since Gauss and Furlong (2002) reported that the larvae can remain in pasture for almost 90 days.
Regardless of the technological level, beef cattle production systems in Brazil are fundamentally based on the use of pastures, where more than 80% of the slaughtered animals are finished in grazing systems (ABIEC, 2019). Strategic control through the application of acaricides and based on the tick's life cycle, reduces the population of these parasites, is economically viable, and contributes to the improvement of the genetic potential of more sensitive breeds, making the production system more efficient (Andreotti et al., 2019; Calvano et al., 2019). In addition, the cost of chemical control and the emergence of acaricide resistant populations of R. microplus in the production system (Jonsson, 2006; Higa et al., 2019; Burrow et al., 2019) have contributed even more to the losses caused by ticks (Jonsson, 2006; Grisi et al., 2014; Calvano et al., 2019). Estimates suggest that the total loss attributed to R. microplus infestation of cattle in Brazil is approximately US $3,2 billion per year (Grisi et al., 2014). In beef cattle, infested crossbred animals (B. taurus and B. indicus) had an economically significant weight loss of 6.8% of their live weight (LW) in the rearing phase, equivalent to an economic loss of US $34.61/animal/year (Calvano et al., 2019).
According to data from the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE – Instituto Brasileiro de Geografia e Estatística, 2017), the Brazilian cattle herd reached 216 million head in the year 2016. This represents an exponential growth of 400% over recent decades and an accelerating trajectory of beef production. Thirty-two percent of this growth took place in the Central-West Region of the country that includes the Cerrado biome (Bonatte Jr et al., 2019). Climatic conditions in the Cerrado are favorable for the maintenance of R. microplus populations in pastures during the year, which leads to high rates of infestation in cattle, particularly in the taurine breeds and their crosses (Furlong and Evans, 1991).
Livestock farming is one of the most important commodities in Brazil (Bernardino de Carvalho and De Zen, 2017). Given its importance in Brazil and the need to increase cattle productivity in the same production area, there is a need for technification of production systems (Bonatte Jr et al., 2019). Technification is related to the quantity and quality of technologies adopted, ranging from more intensive livestock farming, the growth of high-productivity pastures, and feed supplementation of the pasture and feedlot to the use of crosses between European breeds (B. taurus) and Zebu breeds (B. indicus), which have higher precocity, better weight gain, better carcass finishing and better meat quality, and it aims to increase the profitability per animal (Igarasi et al., 2008). Often such “technifications” can be an obstacle in the cattle production chain because introducing crossbred animals can also change the genetic sensitivity to parasites, which will reflect on the economic aspects of extensive livestock farming (Andreotti et al., 2018). All technological changes are complex activities, presenting great flexibility in the combination of production factors, and as a result, there is great diversity in the production systems used by producers, even within the same biome, imposed by edaphoclimatic, social, and economic factors associated with a wide range of technological standards (Pereira and Costa, 2014; Costa et al., 2018).
Models are important tools to evaluate the impacts of tick infestation on the economic performance of different beef cattle production systems for the evaluation, comparison, and decision making on strategic tick control by producers. Thus, this study aimed to adapt a model to estimate and compare the economic losses related to infestation with the tick R. microplus in cattle production systems under grazing conditions with different technological standards in the Brazilian Cerrado biome.
Section snippets
Characteristics of the cattle herd structure
The matrix of simulated data represents, in an adapted way, properties defined by Corrêa et al. (2006), who proposed five improved systems as alternatives to the systems used by most producers in the central-western region of Brazil, whose predominant biome is the Cerrado, which has a predominantly hot climate with well-defined dry and rainy seasons. To define the systems proposed by Corrêa et al. (2006), participated in the research producers in the region, researchers from Embrapa beef cattle
Structure of the cattle herd
As the technological level of the systems increased, so did the total number of animals in the herd, as shown in Table 2. This connection was due to the increase in the number of breeding cows in the different production systems: The extensive system had 561 breeding cows, the semi-intensive system had 635 breeding cows, and the intensive system had 1010 breeding cows. Similar data were found by Gaspar et al. (2018). Corrêa et al. (2006) explained that this increase in the number of breeding
Discussion
The data presented in this article, based on simulation results, support several studies that emphasize that tick infestation in cattle causes economic losses in animal production (Honer and Gomes, 1990; Jonsson, 2006; Grisi et al., 2014; Wang et al., 2017; Andreotti et al., 2018; Bonatte Jr et al., 2019; Burrow et al., 2019; Calvano et al., 2019).
The evaluation of data from representative rural properties of the Cerrado biome allowed us to identify how much the tick R. microplus affects the
Conclusion
The R. microplus tick directly affects the economic and productive performance of the different beef cattle production systems in the Cerrado, regardless of the technological level. This simulation showed that the adoption of strategic control directly benefits the productive and economic performance of farms in all systems. Crossbred animals, even those that are more susceptible to ticks, demonstrate a productive performance that contributes to the economic efficiency of the production systems
Declaration of Competing Interest
There were no conflicts of interest that may have biased the work reported in this paper.
Acknowledgments
The authors thank the Coordination for the Improvement of Higher Education Personnel (Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior), National Council for Scientific and Technological Development (Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico), and the Mato Grosso do Sul State Foundation for the Support and Development of Education (Fundação de Apoio ao Desenvolvimento do Ensino, Ciência e Tecnologia) - Governo do Estado de Mato Grosso do Sul, Brazil.
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