MU veterinary professor awarded $460,000 to study tick disease affecting cattle

A University of Missouri College of Veterinary Medicine professor has been awarded nearly half a million dollars to study an infectious blood disease in cattle caused by ticks.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture awarded $460,000 to Bill Stich, professor of parasitology for the MU vet school. The project allow Stich and his team to develop immunizations to fight the disease.

Anaplasmosis, which is passed by ticks through their bite and saliva, infects red blood cells in cattle and can ause anemia, fever and weight loss. It can also be fatal. It’s been estimated more than 80 percent of beef cattle are affected by ticks.

The current prevention and control of the disease involved chemical pesticides and antibiotics. However, ticks are developing resistance to these methods.

“Chemical pesticides, while effective, often leave residues in food products from cattle and cause contamination to the environment, so these methods aren’t sustainable,” Stich said. “Therefore, we are examining other, more natural methods to control this disease that causes hundreds of millions of dollars in losses each year.”

The goal of this program is to develop sustainable approaches to prevent the spread of tick-transmitted germs by attacking the germs inside ticks before they can be transmitted to cattle. Stich’s strategy uses the immune response of cattle to interfere with tick molecules that are required for survival of disease-causing germs in the ticks.

To do this, the team is targeting the two main parts of the tick where tick-transmitted germs are found — the mid-gut and salivary glands.

“Understanding how pathogens are maintained in the ticks that transmit them, including the bacteria that cause anaplasmosis, is key,” Stich said. “Our lab and team will examine just how the tick molecules are involved with the development of bacteria and how we can create immunizations targeted at those tick molecules. The overall goal is to develop sustainable ways to treat the disease to keep cattle and herds healthy.”

The project, “Targeting the tick-pathogen interface for tick-borne disease control,” (Grant #2017-67015-26630) will be led by Stich and an international research team international including Sathaporn Jittapalapong, dean of veterinary technology at Kasetsart University in Bangkok, Thailand.