Cattle Ticks

Each year 150 million dollars is lost to Australia's beef and dairy industries because of cattle tick infecting our cattle. Cattle ticks are ecto-parasites which live in the coat of the cattle and suck their blood. By doing this, many diseases like tick fever can be transferred causing poor health, and the effects can be fatal. Tick fever is a malaria-like disease and is described by Peter Willadsen as having produced "one of the biggest disasters in our agricultural history."

It is not unusual for 1000 female ticks to be found on one cow at a time. Together they can suck more than ½ a litre of blood in one day. The female ticks then drop to the ground to reproduce producing another cycle of ticks to infest cattle.


Tick fever or red water is an important disease of cattle and up to 7 million animals in northern and eastern parts of Australia are potentially at risk. Tick fever vaccines are the most reliable and practical tools for long term control of the disease and are man...