Much of the land in the United States is not capable of producing cultivated crops, but does produce abundant forage for livestock production. The value of these forages is largely unrecognized, mainly because it enters the market in the form of an animal product, specifically cattle. Livestock is the leading cash crop of all farm production, with cattle/calves being the leading cash commodity with an income of over 37.9 billion dollars (1994 dollars, the most recent study). Livestock are rich sources of essential amino acids, fats, vitamins, and minerals for human needs, and are the only organisms that can convert cellulose in plants into food for human consumption. Insects, ticks, and mites cost the U.S. livestock producer in excess of $3 billion annually (1994 dollars), with over $2 billion suffered by the beef cattle industry alone. These losses take the form of reduced efficiency of feed conversion, reduced weight gains and decreased milk production. It was estimated that producers applied 10-12 million pounds of pesticides to livestock in 1994, at a cost of $60 million for the pesticides alone. These numbers do not take into account the costs associated with environmental damage (e.g. pyrethroids are highly toxic to fish and bees). The emergence of resistance to an increasingly smaller number of registered pesticides has put the control of agricultural pests in peril world-wide. Additionally, there are safety and environmental concerns from unintended exposures to humans and beneficial insects. To provide a safer alternative for vector control, C8910 was developed. It is a mixture of medium chain fatty acids, specifically octanoic, nonanoic, and decanoic acids. These components are regulated as GRAS (generally recognized as safe) by the FDA and have been in commercial use as direct food additives for decades. C8910 has repellent properties against a variety of flies, mosquitoes, and ticks that potentially transmit disease. Cattle field tests involving self treatment dust bags (at least twice daily) have shown that C8910 can effect fly reductions comparable to pyrethroid and organophosphorus agents, a level of efficacy that is unique among repellents. If formulated to promote contact transfer at doses less than the repellent level, insect incapacitation and mortality will occur. We propose to develop long lasting controlled-release formulations of C8910 for use as premises spray and direct skin application for protecting cattle against biting flies and ticks.
