Livestock ticks in New Caledonia: Review on 75 years of presence and 60 years of research. Local history for global learning

Abstract

Cattle have been present in New Caledonia since mid-19th century, but the cattle tick, Rhipicephalus (Boophilus) microplus (Canestrini), was inadvertently introduced in 1942. Overnight, this parasite has disrupted cattle farming, changed farmers’ habits, and marked life in the bush with the pace of cattle returns for acaricide baths. Seventy-five years later, it still shapes the New Caledonian landscape by forcing a majority of breeders to replace historical tick-susceptible breeds by more resistant breeds. The first research programs aiming at controlling this parasite were launched nearly 60 years ago. The information they generated enables to propose today different tools to New Caledonian farmers to maintain their farms despite this parasitic pressure. The data review on decades of tick presence and research highlights that farmers have had to adapt to this constraint to preserve their activity, but also that future management of this parasite can no longer exclusively depend on the use of chemical acaricides because of the resistance developed by R. microplus. Particular attention must be paid to determining farmers’ demands, in addition to the needs identified by research and technical services, in order to facilitate acceptance of the proposed solutions by all.