Document Type

Thesis - Open Access

Award Date

1967

Degree Name

Master of Science (MS)

Department / School

Entomology-Zoology

Abstract

A livestock producer will usually experience a louse infestation among his cattle sometime during his career. Most of the cattle that become louse-infested are easily ridded of their lice. There may be, however, one animal in a herd which is particularly susceptible to the lice and becomes chronically infested. Sometimes the susceptible animal may become so heavily infested with lice that death occurs. Scharff (1962) stated that the death loss resulting from very heavy infestations of the short-nosed cattle louse, Hematopinus eurysternus (Nitzsch) was probably about one percent. The louse involve in the experiment was the short-nosed cattle louse, Hematopinus eurysternus (Nitzsch). This louse is a very important pest of beef cattle, appearing every fall and winter. According to Scharff (1962), this species is the most common louse infesting cattle in Montana during the winter months. Peterson et al. (1953) and Shemanchuk et al. (1960) demonstrated that infestations may become great enough to cause severe anemia and death to their victims. They draw so much blood that the animal’s body is unable to replace it by hemopiesis. The purpose of this thesis is to determine if the degree of louse infestation is related to the amount of riboflavin, thiamine, niacin, and pantothenic acid in the animal’s blood. Kemper (1953) stated that there may be some relationship between cattle louse infestation and the lack of some B-vitamins in the blood. Kartman (1949) observed that rats, deficient in thiamine, riboflavin and pantothenic acid, were more susceptible to pediculosis than rats not lacking the vitamins. Matthys (1946) suggested that the levels of vitamins A and D in the host apparently had no relationship to the infestation of cattle lice.

Library of Congress Subject Headings

Cattle lice
Vitamins in animal nutrition

Format

application/pdf

Publisher

South Dakota State University

Share

COinS