Laboratory and field evaluation of entomopathogenic fungi for the control of amitraz-resistant and susceptible strains of Rhipicephalus decoloratus.

Rhipicephalus decoloratus causes serious economic losses in cattle industry every year in East Africa. Biological control using entomopathogenic fungi is seen as a promising alternative to chemical acaricides being used for their control. The pathogenicity of Metarhizium anisopliae and of Beauveria bassiana isolates was tested in the laboratory against amitraz-resistant and amitraz-susceptible strains of R. decoloratus. Unfed larvae were sprayed with conidial suspensions of 1×10(9) conidia ml(-1). Fungal isolates were pathogenic to R. decoloratus larvae, causing mortality of between 10.0 and 100% and between 12.1 and 100% of amitraz-susceptible and amitraz-resistant strains, respectively. The LT50 values of selected fungal isolates varied between 2.6-4.2days in amitraz-susceptible strain and between 2.8-3.9days in amitraz-resistant strain. The LC50 values varied between 0.4±0.1 and 200.0±60×10(3) conidia ml(-1) and between 0.1±0.1 and 200.0±31.0×10(3) conidia ml(-1) in amitraz-susceptible and amitraz-resistant strains, respectively. Metarhizium anisopliae isolate ICIPE 7 outperformed the other isolates and was selected for compatibility study with amitraz and field trial. ICIPE 7 was compatible with amitraz. In the field, four treatments including control, ICIPE 7 alone, amitraz alone and ICIPE 7/amitraz were applied on cattle. All the treatments significantly reduced the number of ticks on all the sampling dates: day 7 (F3,8=3.917; P=0.0284), day 14 (F3,8=9.090; P=0.0275), day 21 (F3,8=37.971; P=0.0001) and day 28 (F3,8=8.170; P=0.0016) compared to the control. Results of the present study indicate that ICIPE 7 can be used for the management of amitraz-resistant strain of R. decoloratus.