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Cooperative Extension Service Communications and Technology Department 3354 1000 E. University Ave. Laramie, WY 82071 (307) 766-6342 • fax (307) 766-3998 • www.uwyo.edu |
For Immediate Release
Contact information:
Jack Lloyd
(307) 766-2234
Contact: Steven L. Miller, Senior Editor
Phone: (307) 766-6342
E-mail: slmiller@uwyo.edu
Archived News Site www.uwyo.edu/agadmin/news/news.htm
Date: Feb. 8, 2007
UW
researcher takes aim at blue lice targeting sheep
A University of Wyoming professor is researching how to keep sheep from getting a case of the blues – the African blue louse.
The blood-sucking louse, whose numbers can reach as high as 4,000 on one animal, was first reported in Wyoming about 20 years ago but complaints have recently increased in Wyoming and surrounding states, said Jack Lloyd, professor emeritus in the Department of Renewable Resources in the College of Agriculture.
The louse can cause animals to be unthrifty and even anemic, said Lloyd.
Wool fibers can be matted together (the louse glues them together to attach her egg), and the irritation causes the sheep to rub and scratch. In advanced cases, large areas of wool slough off or are rubbed off.
Lloyd is working with scientists at Montana State University-Bozeman to develop a process for evaluating drugs and pesticides for treatment.
One of the products he’s working on inhibits the molting process of the lice and is harmless to non-target organisms, including sheep and humans. Lice go through three immature or nymphal stages before they become adults.
“The drug we are studying prevents the louse from laying down a new cuticle for the next stage, and the louse dies,” he noted.
Control of winter-time pests like lice is especially difficult, he said. Lice increase during winter in temperate climates. Why they do is not completely understood.
“I really don’t know what will control these lice,” Lloyd said. “The standard control for other species of lice may call for soaking the animals twice with a water-based insecticide. This may not be possible with an animal in full fleece under wintertime conditions.”
He hopes to identify a drug that moves through the fleece or one that is absorbed by the sheep and travels via the circulatory system to the blood-feeding lice.
“I hope we can come up with a treatment that will provide sufficient persistency so treatments can be applied in the fall instead of in the winter,” said Lloyd. “A preventative treatment in the fall will have the added benefit of controlling the lice before they reach levels damaging to the sheep.”
He’s focusing on drugs and insecticides already on the market for other species of livestock, mostly cattle. If something is found effective, Lloyd can begin the process for approval through the Wyoming and Montana state departments of agriculture
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