An Assessment of the Causes of Tick Resistance to Acaricides use on Cattle in kazo County Kiruhura District, Uganda

Abstract

Tick resistance to acaricides has become a major problem to Uganda’s livestock industry. Control of ticks requires the use of appropriate chemicals administered through most efficient methods. This paper focused on ‘assessing the causes of tick resistance to use of acaricides on cattle in Uganda, Kazo County in Kiruhura District.’ Participants targeted included: farmers, veterinary professionals, retail drug shops, suppliers and or importers of veterinary medicines thus giving a sample size of 125 respondents. Purposive and systematic sampling procedures were used to select the respondents. The data collection procedures used included: questionnaires and interviews, observations, and document review. The study findings shows that Acaricides are available and all farmers have access to them but the accessibility is however undermined by the price of acaricides, distance travelled to reach the drug shop, and use of inadequate methods for tick control thus culminating to tick resistance in use of acaricides. The inadequate regulatory framework exposes the farmer to adulterated acaricides instead of the original chemicals which has further enhanced tick resistance to acaricides. The study concludes that tick resistance to acaricides remains a challenge to management of cattle diseases in Kiruhura District due to inadequate regulation in the veterinary pharmaceutical sector which has resulted in penetration of adulterated acaricides in the market, use of outdated Essential Drug List (EDL) by stockists and influence of market forces of demand and supply. Subsequently, the paper recommends farmers to adopt the recommended Good Agricultural practices(GAP) since they result in reduced farm risks and expenses, Uganda government to increase farmers’ access to professional advice by recruitment and deployment of staff at the lower levels and further scientific research be done on the efficacy of acaricides for tick control.