Effect of aggregation of horn fly populations within cattle herds and consequences for sampling to obtain unbiased estimates of abundance.
Reanalysis of counts of horn fly, Hematobia irritans (L.), obtained from a variety of cattle herds indicated that aggregation of the flies within herds decreased as mean fly density increased. Aggregation was also related to the proportion of fly-resistant and fly-susceptible cattle in a herd. Herds were grouped according to their degree of horn fly aggregation. Low aggregation herds included larger framed Angus, Horned Hereford, Polled Hereford, and Red Poll breeds. Moderate aggregation occurred with Brahman, Charolais, small-framed Angus, mixed cows, and Hereford x Charolais cross. High aggregation occurred with Chianina and mixed herds. Relationships between the sample means and variances varied among aggregation groups. A resampling approach was used to determine the influence of random sampling of a herd on the proportion of horn fly population estimates within fixed percentages of the true mean. The proportion of sample means within +/- 5, 10, 15, and 20% of the true means varied with the proportion of the herd sampled, the mean and variance of fly density, and herd size. Recommendations for obtaining sample size to estimate fly density within a fixed percentage of the true mean are given.
Research Centre, Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, Lethbridge AB, Canada. Lysyk@agr.gc.ca
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Lysyk
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Steelman
D000416:Alberta / Q000453:epidemiology; D000818:Animals; D002417:Cattle; D002418:Cattle Diseases / Q000453:epidemiology*; D009117:Muscidae / Q000472:pathogenicity; D009198:Myiasis / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000662:veterinary*; D011156:Population Density