Summary
This study was carried out to investigate fly count during different periods of the day during fly season and to show the effect of fly nuisance on dairy cattle avoidance behaviour and milk production and investigate the effectiveness of MAM Butox® a commercially available fly repellent in reducing fly irritation. Six Holstein freizian cows, 4 years old, were used in the study. Both fly counts and fly avoidance behaviours were recorded for 14 days before application of MAM Butox® and for the same period after application. Each individual cow was observed for 10 min, 3 times a day to estimate the fly counts per fore and hind legs and the frequency of specified responses occurrence to fly harassment. Milk production per individual cow was recorded 14 days before and after fly repellent application. The results of the present study indicated that there was highly significant differences in the fly count between non treated and treated cows with MAM Butox®. The highest fly count was recorded at 12 at noon period (8.5 fly/leg/ min), while the lowest fly count was recorded at 8 AM period (4.13 fly/leg/min). There was highly significant difference in the fly count per minute between the fore and hind legs being 9.38 and 2.49 fly/min for the fore and hind legs, respectively. There were highly significant differences in the performance of fly avoidance behaviour between treated and non-treated cows with deltametherin. The highest observed fly avoidance behaviour was the tail switching (14.91/min) followed by ear flicking (11.54/min) and skin twitching (10.21/min), while the lowest observed fly avoidance behaviours were the fore and hind leg stamping and the head shaking they were 0.84, 0.71 and 0.73 per minute, respectively. The highest avoidance behaviour was that recorded at 4PM period, while the lowest was that recorded at 8AM period. There was no significant difference in the daily milk production between treated and non-treated cows with the fly repellent. The milk yield was 8.73 and 8.81 litre/day for non-treated and treated cows respectively. It was concluded that deltametherin application has a significant effect in reducing fly population landing on dairy cattle and treated animals with the fly repellent (deltametherin) displayed significantly fewer avoidance behaviour to fly attack than non-treated animals. Although, there was no significant effect of fly repellent application on daily milk production, the reduced fly population on dairy cattle and the reduced performance of avoidance behaviour in treated animals has a good impact on welfare and health condition of dairy animal.
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