Annual/Termination Reports:

[03/18/2019] [01/16/2020] [03/02/2021] [03/09/2022] [02/13/2023]

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Brief Summary of Minutes

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Report Information

Participants

Erika Machtinger Penn State etm10@psu.edu
Amy Murillo University of California Riverside amy.murillo@ucr.edu
Alec Gerry University of California Riverside Alec.Gerry@ucr.edu
Doug Ross Control Solutions, Inc. doug.ross@controlsolutionsinc.com; DHRoss53@gmail.com
Brandon Smythe New Mexico State University bsmythe@nmsu.edu
Justin Talley Oklahoma State University justin.talley@okstate.edu
Barbara Hull Y-Tex bhull@y-tex.com
Ted Burgess Northern Illinois University tedwin183@niu.edu;
Dave Boxler University of Nebraska North Platte dboxler1@unl.edu
Gary Brewer University of Nebraska Lincoln gbrewer2@unl.edu
Robert Gore 4rys, Inc. rgore@4rysprays.com
Dana Nayduch USDA-ARS Dana.Nayduch@USDA.GOV
Kateryn Rochon University of Manitoba Kateryn.Rochon@umanitoba.ca
Luisa Domingues USDA-ARS luisa.domingues@usda.gov
Sonja Swiger Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Slswiger@ag.tamu.edu
Kelly Loftin University of Arkansas Kloftin@uaex.edu
Joe Argentine BASF joseph.argentine@basf.com
Dana Johnson USDA-ARS Gainesville dana.johnson@usda.gov
Roxie White USDA-ARS Gainesville roxie.white@usda.gov
Chris Geden USDA-ARS Gainesville Chris.Geden@usda.gov
Georgina Bingham Vestergaard gvb@vestergaard.com
Pia Olafson USDA-ARS Kerrville Pia.Olafson@usda.gov
Kena Mullen BASF keena.mullen@basf.com
Xing Ping Hu Auburn University huxingp@auburn.edu
Nancy C. Hinkle University of Georgia Nhinkle@uga.edu
Jeff Scott Cornell University Jgs5@cornell.edu
Chris Holderman Central Life Sciences cholderman@central.com
Phil Kaufman University of Florida Pkaufman@ufl.edu
Aaron Tarone Texas A&M tamlucilia@tamu.edu
David Taylor USDA-ARS Lincoln Dave.Taylor@usda.gov
Wes Watson North Carolina State University wwatson@ncsu.edu
Jerry Hogsette USDA-ARS CMAVE Jerry.Hogsette@usda.gov
Becky Trout Fryxell University of Tennessee rfryxell@utk.edu
David White University of Tennessee dwhite25@utk.edu
Administrative Advisor

Brief Summary of Minutes

January 16 - Meeting called to order by Chair Becky Trout Fryxell at 8:30 AM. After some opening remarks by local arrangement coordinator Jerry Hogsette, there was a round of self-introductions. Herb Bolton was not able to attend the meeting. Administrative advisor David White reminded the group that the annual report is due within 60 days of holding the meeting. Providing the minutes of the meeting with accompanying appropriate materials satisfies the reporting requirement. 

• Amy Murillo announced that she now holds a faculty position at UC Riverside. 

Wes Watson led the discussion of Objective 1, New technologies for the management of biting and nuisance flies in organic and conventional systems.

• Jerry Hogsette presented work on attract and kill projects for stable flies. At the National Zoo in Washington, he has been evaluating use of a Knight Stick trap that has been modified by wrapping it with perforated insecticide-treated fabric from Vestergaard. He also presented work from Costa Rican pineapple fields comparing Knight Stick and Vavua traps with sticky adhesive-coated white plastic bags. The white plastic bags performed surprisingly well and are inexpensive.


• Dave Taylor announced that another international stable fly meeting is being planned for Orlando in 2021.


• Dave Boxler reported on several field projects with horn flies. In the first, application of 7-8 fatty acids from coconut oil provided some repellency but it only lasted for 3 days or so. In the second, the Y-Tex eartag XP820 with abamectin and PBO provided excellent control for 2 months. In the third, a mix of C8 and C10 fatty acids provided only very transitory control.


• Chris Geden provided an overview of new objectives for his next 5-year project plan: 1) Effect of gut microbiome on fly fitness; 2) Beauveria bassiana for adult fly management; 3) Development of Tachinaephagus zealandicus as a biological larvicide; and 4) Novel attractant for house flies based on constituents of molasses.


• Roxie White presented her MS thesis research on bassiana for house flies: 1) Fly larvae were only susceptible to infection when they were very young; 2) A strain of B. bassiana isolated from flies on a Florida dairy farm was more effective against adult flies than other strains except for the GHA strain found in the commercial product Botaniguard; and 3) 10 generations of selection for faster kill rates was not effective at increasing virulence.


• Wes Watson has a project on improving animal welfare and disease management in dairy herds through fly control. He pointed out that the dairy industry is hurting, with many farms closing and farm income suffering from milk prices that are low and variable. He has sent out 2000 surveys to dairy farmers to ask about items including pests, pinkeye, and mastitis. He also mentioned that NIFA has a new grant program for organic production systems, the Organic Agriculture Research and Extension Initiative (OREI). 

Phil Kaufman led the discussion for Objective 2, Insecticide resistance detection and management.

• Phil announced that he will be taking the position of department head at Texas A&M. He also said that he will continue for now to provide test kits for stable fly resistance testing. This year he sent kits to Costa Rica and Australia. Participants are asked to send the resulting data to Phil and the flies to Pia Olafson for genotyping.


• Alec Gerry presented work done by his graduate student Caleb Hubbard on the genetics of behavioral resistance to imidacloprid in house flies. This has involved collecting wild flies and selecting for flies that are behaviorally but not metabolically resistant. He now has five lines of these flies and has identified two chromosomes where the behavioral resistance alleles are located.


• Pia Olafson reported on her work with resistance in stable flies. Kdr-his is the only resistance allele in US populations. The “regular” kdr allele has been found in France, Thailand, and Australia. She has developed a construct for injecting fly eggs to transform stable flies with CRISPR-cas9, using a heat shock promoter and GFP. She is interested in looking at odorant-binding proteins (ODPs) and whether they can be knocked out. The ODP genes are clustered on the genome so it should be possible to knock out several at the same time. Pia has also sequenced the face fly genome and is planning to do Fannia and 

Louisa Domingues, who has been a postdoc at USDA-Kerrville for three years, presented work on efforts to develop vaccines for external parasites. She is using a new approach, Reverse Vaccinology, in which one screens for immunogenic antigens for analysis on the genome or transcriptome rather than using culture-based methods. This is computer-intensive work for which several software systems have been developed. The initial screening narrows the field from 6000 candidates to 600 or so. These are then cloned into yeast, purified, tested in vitro and then finally in animals to see if antibodies are produced. The current vaccine is effective for Boophilus annulatus but not B. microplus. 

Dana Nayduch led the discussion on Objective 3, Investigation of the microbial ecology, epithelial immunity, and vector competence of biting and nuisance flies.

• Aaron Tarone is examining molecular and ecological routes that create bacterial “winners” and “losers” by looking at interactions between bacteria and Lucilia sericata. This blow fly has more anti-bacterial and anti-biofilm protectants than any other eukaryote. To do this work he is looking at expression of antimicrobials in larvae after they have fed of Pseudomonas auruginosa and Acinetobacter baumani on agar plates. He is seeing lots of different responses which can differ depending on the species of bacteria. Aaron is also interested in heat tolerance and is characterizing critical thermal maxima in Chrysomya rufifacies and macellaria. First instars are the most sensitive to heat shock. Responses can be delayed; a one-hour heat event in the life of a larva can result in a 20% reduction in pupal weight.


• Ted Burgess gave an overview of the potential of polyols for fly management. Although they are much less toxic than conventional insecticides, they are inexpensive and safe to use. The mode of action is still uncertain. Rates of regurgitation by adult flies are much higher after they have fed on polyols than on sucrose. Polyols affect hemolymph osmolality and reduce the number of total bacterial cfu’s in the gut. Xylitol is known to have antimicrobial properties.


• Adam Wong reported on two projects. In the first, he is looking at interactions of Vibrio cholera and Drosophila. Normal flies are unaffected by Vibrio but die quickly if the quorum sensing gene is knocked out. Feeding succinate to knock-out flies rescues them, indicating that the cause of death is due to the Vibrio depleting succinate and causing the flies to die of starvation. In the second project he has been looking at antibiotic resistant bacteria in wild house flies. Females are much more likely than males to harbor such bacteria, and most of the resistant bacteria were resistant to at least 3 antibiotics. Some of the resistance mechanisms in these bacteria appear to be novel in nature.


• Becky Trout Fryxell has a student who is looking at the effect of horn flies on milk quality and yield on organic dairies. She is using digital photography and computer automation to do the fly counts. So far, she is seeing a clear relationship between the number of flies and animal weight, but no effect on somatic cell counts.


• Dana Nayduch reported on two projects. In the first, she looked at bacterial carriage by sexes and from different collection sites (dumpster vs dairy). More culturable aerobes were found in females and from the dairy, but there were no sex or site effects in coliforms (VRBA). Of the dairy flies, 36 of the 38 bacterial isolates were antibiotic resistant, with many isolates resistant to multiple antibiotics. In the second project she is taking a sequencing rather than a culture-based approach to ask similar questions. Her 5-year project plan includes an extensive survey (4 climatic zones) of fly microbiomes, associated pathogens, and the presence of antibiotic-resistant bacteria. 

Dave Taylor led the discussion on Objective 4, Characterizing population biology of biting and nuisance flies.

• Alec Gerry mentioned that he has a student monitoring overwintering and the effects of temperature on Culicoides on dairies.


• Dave Taylor reported on two projects. In the first he looked at the effects of temperature and diet quality on development of stable fly immatures. Larvae reared on diets with low nutritional quality completed development at the same time as those on standard diet but produced smaller-bodied pupae. Small pupae have lower adult emergence rates. The optimum rearing temperature is 30^oC, but it drops off rapidly at 35^o In the second project he has been looking at stable fly larval orientation to different chemicals. They do not respond to alcohols, are attracted to some esters, and very attracted to ammonium hydroxide.


• Wes Watson reported on a flight mill that his lab has developed that can run as many as 12 flies at a time. Horn flies that were 2 and 5 days old flew 18.9 and 15 km in 24 hours, respectively, whereas newly emerged flies only flew1.4 km. Five-day-old face flies flew 30.1 km in 24 hours.


• Justin Talley is looking at whether tabanid populations are affected by eastern red cedar as part of the landscape. He compared open- and closed-canopy eastern red cedar habitats with pastures and oak habitats. All of the habitats had cattle present. Tabanus abactor was the most abundant species. More flies were collected in the open-canopy red cedar habitat, and this may be related to fly larval development in moist leaf litter under the trees. Justin also has a grant to look at flies visiting pig burial sites. Dead pigs are inoculated with pox virus, left open in a trench for 5 hours, then covered with soil.


• Becky Trout Fryxell reported on three projects. In the first, she discussed work done by her student Travis Davis. Travis collected tabanids over the southeast and visited entomological museums to get collection information and GPS coordinates for all collections. He has compared the apparent distribution of species using GPS versus county centroid records and done niche modelling based on RH, degree days, vegetation and other parameters. In the second project she described a grant that she received that provides 8-week research training experiences in bioinformatics for women. The women also receive leadership training. Becky will have two of these students, and they will look at stable flies from 20 or so locations in the US, France, Costa Rica, and Thailand. The students will homogenize the flies, take snips, and look at population genetics, microbiomes and blood meals. Her third project focuses on Asian longhorn tick. She presented the current known distribution and the 19 known hosts. This tick rarely feeds on humans or on small mammals such as mice and is most often found on dogs and cattle. It is a known vector of Anaplasma, Babesia, Theileria, Ehrlichia and various rickettsiae and viruses.

 

At the end of the session, Dana Nayduch announced that USDA-Manhattan had hired a new scientist, Bethany McGregor. Bethany will soon be recruiting for a GS7 to GS9 technician. 

Chris Holderman gave an update on this summer’s LIWC meeting, which will be in Dallas June 14-17 (Sunday through Wednesday). Tuesday will be a half-day of programming with a banquet in the evening. 

Meeting adjourned for day at 4:45 PM 

January 17 – meeting called to order at 8:35. 

Alec Gerry began the discussion of Objective 5, Extension and community engagement.

Alec emphasized the need to garner stakeholder support for veterinary entomology with tangible products that they can use. The ongoing revision of the “Lincoln Document” summarizing the pest status and research/extension needs of vet entomology pests will provide one such product. He also revisited the topic of developing a series of public-ready impact statements on research and extension projects. Such statements could also include accomplishments related to student training.

            Our project also includes a Milestone to seek funding opportunities. Alec reminded the group that it would be helpful if project members include some funding for extension/outreach in their research proposals. This can include funding to support the Veterinary Entomology website. Alec also suggested that group members could try to get funding from regional IPM Centers to develop Pest Management Plans for different commodities.

            A team has been formed to expand the website to increase exposure to stakeholders and decision-makers by making it a national repository of information. The current team includes Alec, Erika Machtinger, Becky Trout Fryxell, Brandon Smythe, Gary Brewer, Phil Kaufman and Dave Taylor. In addition, Amy Murillo, Ted Burgess, and Kateryn Rochon asked to be included. Although Erika has been taking a leadership role, the team needs to identify a website chair. Specific goals are to add new/updated content, monitor website visits, and create new content (videos, training documents) organized by commodity and that provides continuing education credits. 

Erika Machtinger then led a discussion about the grant that went to S1076 members who have Extension responsibilities. The grant had three objectives. The first was to update the “Lincoln document” with a series of fly-specific articles for the Journal of IPM (due March 16). The writers of these articles spent a day before the meeting (January 15) brainstorming and giving progress reports. The second was to improve the website by giving it an updated look, improving content, and embedding social media such as Twitter and YouTube so that any S1076 member can post content. Visitors to the site can now choose among the options “Find a Pest”, “Find a Pesticide”, and “Find a Professional”. Please send Erika any Extension publications that could be posted to the website. Also, please send Erika any high-quality photos that you may have on sheep louse, chicken louse, wool maggot, and sheep ked. 

Erika then asked for volunteers to develop “Pest Paragraphs”, i.e., short blurbs followed by 6-10 sentences about the subject pest. These will be posted on the website. The following folks signed up for the pests below. If you signed up, please submit to Erika as soon as possible but by June 1 at the latest.

• Alec - Biting midge


• Phil - Brown dog tick, sheep botfly


• Becky - Face fly, Blacklegged tick


• Justin - Horse botfly, Deer fly


• Wes- Sheep louse


• Jerry H. - Black dump fly


• Dave B. - Cattle grub


• Nancy - Flea


• Hannah - Mange mites


• Sonja - Black fly


• Amy - Fowl tick


• T- Wool maggot


• Aaron - Black soldier fly


• Erika- Eye gnat


• Xi - Hog louse


• Kateryn - Sheep ked 

A somewhat larger task that remains is the development of a series of “Learn Now” videos for different commodities. Erika’s postdoc Hanna is also doing units of IPM (in general) and insecticide resistance. There will be 10 of these Learn Now modules, with each being composed of a sequence of short videos on particular topics (pest ID, life cycle, monitoring, and management). The first Learn Now product, “Poultry Pest Identification” is nearly completed. Storyboards are needed for all of the remaining videos. The following people volunteered to help with the remaining videos:

• Beef cattle - Dave T., Justin, Sonja, Brandon, Dave B.


• Poultry - Amy, Alec, Erika, Brad, Nancy, Jerry


• Dairy cattle - Sonja, Chris, Alec, Kateryn, Dave Bereford


• Equine - Erika, Becky, Kelly

Becky recently sent an email describing what needs to be done for these to the group. Erika reminded us that cell phone cameras can be used to shoot video, but we should try to include a range of faces and places in the various shots. Please develop text and narrative on the assumption that the audience has an 8th-grade education. Our goal is to have the videos completed by June 1.

Alec then asked for a round of applause for Becky, Erika, and Jerry for their hard work in putting together a good meeting. 

A brief business meeting followed, in which Raleigh, NC was chosen for the 2021 meeting and Stillwater, OK for 2022. 

Doug Ross announced that his company has access to a wide range of technical AI’s if people need them for testing.

Meeting adjourned 11:15 AM 

Respectfully submitted,

Chris Geden, Secretary

Accomplishments

Publications

Impact Statements

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Report Information

Participants

Brief Summary of Minutes

Accomplishments

Publications

Impact Statements

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Report Information

Participants

Brief Summary of Minutes

Accomplishments

Publications

Impact Statements

Back to top

Report Information

Participants

Alec Gerry
Barbara Hull
Becky Trout Fryxell
Bethany McGregor
Brandon Lyons
Cassandra Olds
Chris Geden
Chris Holderman
Dana Nayduch
David Boxler
Edwin Burgess
Erika Machtinger
Gary Brewer
Jerry Hogsette
Jerry Zhu
Katy Smith
Kyle Harrison
Nancy Hinkle
Perot Saelao
Phillip Kaufman
Ulises Sanchez
Wes Watson
Aaron Tarone
Abigail Orr
Alden Estep
Amy Murillo
Brandon Smythe
Caitlin Taylor
Caleb Hubbard
Cliff Lamb
Dave Taylor
Hannah Chu
Jeffery Scott
Kateryn Rochon
Kelly Loftin
Kim Lohmeyer
Lauren Beebe
Marc Eaton
Michelle Colby
Pia Olafson
Richard Meisel
Roger Moon
Sara Neupane
TC Crippen
Travis Rusch
Victoria Pickens
William Barton
Xing Ping Hu
Zach Adelman

Brief Summary of Minutes

Day 1

Meeting called to order by Erika Machtinger at 8:31 AM. Erika announced that the meeting is a hybrid of in-person and virtual (Zoom) participation. She then introduced the current S1076 officers and asked folks to go around the room and do self-introductions. This was followed by a discussion of the purpose of multistate projects, which is to address research problems that are bigger than what any state programs can handle on their own. The states handle the distribution of multistate funds using a variety of mechanisms.

Jerry Hogsette (local arrangements) announced that lunches and breakfasts will be provided for both days of the meeting and that registration costs will be calculated based on expenses and the number of registrants. The registration fee will be paid directly to the Hilton hosting the meeting.

Erika asked whether there were any announcements regarding job openings or transitions:

·         Erika is hiring a postdoc to work on bedbug monitoring; salary of $72,000/year

·         Dana Nayduch said that the Manhattan lab is interviewing for a 6th SY in her unit. This person will focus on bioinformatics. Another new hire is imminent, pending a rating panel review. Travis Rusch, who was a postdoc, has been hired as an SY. These new scientists will need technicians, so be on the lookout for job openings for these technician slots.

·         Perot Saelao announced that the USDA Kerrville lab will be hiring an immunologist SY and that the Research Leader position for the Mission lab will be advertised soon. Kerrville is undergoing a $50 million upgrade, with new buildings being constructed to replace the old Quonset huts.

·         Becky Trout Fryxell said that Tennessee will again be offering an 8-week summer program for women in bioinformatics. They will also be recruiting for a microbiome faculty position.

·         Jeff Scott announced that Cornell will be recruiting for an extension livestock entomologist.

·         Phil Kaufman encouraged people with vacancies to send advertisements to him to circulate to other department heads.

·         Kyle Harrison, currently a postdoc at USDA Lincoln, is looking for a position in genetics/genomics.

·         Chris Geden announced that John Stoffolano has retired from the University of Massachusetts after 53 years and mentioned his many contributions to our understanding of fly biology.

·         Phil Kaufman suggested that the S1076 group self-nominate for another recognition award.

 

 

Dave Boxler led the discussion for Objective 1, New technologies for management of biting and nuisance flies in organic and conventional systems.

Aaron Tarone has received a grant that will examine alternatives for sterilizing insects for SIT programs because of national security concerns about the use of cobalt irradiators. A first step will be preparation of a review article on possible alternatives, including X-rays and molecular/genetic approaches. John Welch will be helping with the article, and Aaron encouraged others with an interest in the subject to participate.

Gary Brewer gave an update on a push-pull approach to managing stable flies. Cattle were divided into three treatment groups: 1) untreated controls; 2) permethrin sprays; and 3) combination of sticky traps baited with m-Cresol and animal sprays with coconut fatty acids. The two treatment groups had similar efficacy, although the effects wore off after several days. They estimate that the traps themselves contributed to a 17-21% reduction in fly loads on the animals.

Alexandra Pagac presented work on a fly parasitoid survey in Pennsylvania poultry houses using two sampling methods: conventional pupal bags and sentinels using fly larvae and associated odors that pupated while in the field. The larval sentinels collected proportionally more Spalangia species than the conventional pupal bags. Parasitoid collections were composed of Trichomolopsis sp. near sarcophagae, Spalangia cameroni, S. endius, and S. nigroaenea. No Muscidifurax or Nasonia were collected.

Chris Geden gave an update on two projects involving Beauveria bassiana. In the first, an attempt was made to select for faster kill times by subjecting five new strains of B. bassiana (from Pennsylvania poultry flies) to selection for 10 generations. After 10 generations, two of the strains had failed. One of the strains was unaffected by the selection and the two others actually had slower kill rates after selection compared to the unselected strains. In another project, the fly predator Carcinops pumilio was found to be mainly refractory to infection with B. bassiana, with low mortality at doses that killed nearly 100% of flies.

Jerry Zhu reviewed the history of work in his lab to identify repellents and attractants for stable flies. Coconut fatty acids (C8-C18) are particularly effective repellents for stable flies and other pests, and work is in progress to evaluate the potential of impregnating military uniforms. Coconut fatty acids and lauric acid are more effective and have longer retention times than catnip oil. Coconut fatty acids were highly effective when formulated in Coppertone sunscreen. Coconut fatty acids were more repellent than DEET for stable flies, bed bugs, and ticks. Capric acid was as effective as DEET against Aedes aegypti. A commercial partner (Nitto) is looking at incorporating attractants such as m-cresol into adhesive for use in sticky white traps.  M-cresol and 2-phenylethanol are both attractive to stable to stable flies, and combinations of the two are highly attractive provided that the chemicals are not actually mixed with each other.

Dave Boxler reported on a study in which mineral blocks with either garlic (2%) or Alrocid were given to cattle in a free choice setting. The garlic mineral was highly palatable. There was no difference between the two treatments, but horn fly counts remained high on animals in both treatment groups.

Wes Watson compared the effectiveness of a passive horn fly walk-through trap device (Bruce trap) with the vacuum-assisted Cow Vac. Both traps worked quite well. Collection traps collected significantly reduced fly counts on cattle compared to the control animals, but the CowVac collected more flies and reduced fly counts on animals more than the Bruce trap.

 

Cassandra Olds compared the effectiveness of two fly sprays for horses (Ultra Shield, pyrethrins and Stop the Bite, a botanical) with a physical head-to-toe fly sheet for stable flies and horn flies. The sheet was most effective at preventing bites. The botanical product was more effective than the pyrethroid product and lasted a little longer. The fly sheets had UV reflecting properties that had a cooling effect on the animals. The horses learned that the sheets protected them from flies and were reluctant to have them removed.

Katy Smith reported on a survey about organic practices in Tennessee dairies. Most (76%) of the producers were conventional operations and 17% were organic. Organic producers had higher severity of pest pressure and pinkeye, but mastitis concerns were the same in the two groups. The primary barrier to transitioning to organic production was perceived higher costs. Most producers were unaware of the connection between flies and pinkeye or mastitis.

 

Ted Burgess led the discussion for Objective 2, Insecticide resistance detection and management.

 

Rich Meisel reported on an improved whole genome sequence for house fly. Using new tools, the new sequence is a substantial improvement over the sequence published in 2014. The new sequence has higher N50s, larger scaffolds, and is more contiguous. Gaps in gene families were closed, and there are now no gaps in the genes coding of antimicrobial peptide families. Most genes have been assigned to chromosomes. Myc binding sites are enriched near constitutively expressed defensins.

 

Perot Saelao is working on expanding genetic tools for livestock pests. They are working on improving the sequence information for horn fly, stable fly, and face fly. BUSCO scores for all three genomes are over 95%. Horn fly appears to have 5 chromosomes plus either several small scaffolds or putative micro chromosomes. Genome sizes for horn fly, stable fly and face fly are 1229, 971, and 1882 Mbs, respectively. Perot encouraged the group to “to help further drive the biologically relevant questions these genomes were generated for”.

 

Jeff Scott, with the help of S1076 members, did a survey for existing cross-resistance in house flies to Fluralaner, which is thought to have a novel mode of action. Flies from all 10 locations sampled had detectable resistance to Fluralaner even though it has never been used in the field against house flies. After four generations of selecting for resistance in the lab, flies had become 10,000-fold resistant. PBO was helpful, knocking resistance down to only 7-fold. The resistance genes map to chromosomes 3 and 5. Older flies were more sensitive to Fluralaner than younger flies. Overall, Jeff concluded that there is little practical potential for this material for field use because of the rapidity with which resistance will develop.

 

Jeff Scott also reported on AChE (acetylcholinesterase) and kdr alleles in flies sampled from 12 locations. Most populations have a mix of kdr mutations: kdr, kdr-his. Skdr, 1B, and susceptible. Kdr mutations are related to VSSC (voltage-sensitive sodium channel) and confer resistance to pyrethroids. AChE is more complicated because of mutations that may have single or multiple origins. The most common AChE mutation in the US is A316S. Others include G342A/V and F407Y. These mutations sometimes involve a small number of amino acid substitutions that have substantial effects on effectiveness of organophosphate and carbamate insecticides.

 

Before breaking for lunch, Pia Olafson invited the group to attend the Livestock Insects Workers Conference in Fredericksburg TX this June 11-14. Pia and Kim Lohmeyer will be the meeting co-chairs.

 

 

Ted Burgess discussed cuticular penetration of fluralaner in adult house flies. The work was done using tritium-labeled fluralaner. Penetration was faster on older than younger flies. The fluralaner-resistant strain that Jeff Scott developed showed 20-fold lower penetration rates than susceptible flies, and the gene responsible for this was mapped to chromosome 3. The type of solvent used (acetone, butyl lactate, triethyl citrate) also had some effect on penetration.

 

Cassandra Olds then led the discussion on Objective 3, Investigation of the microbial ecology, epithelial immunity, and vector competence of biting and nuisance flies.

 

Abigail Orr presented work on using blow flies as indicators for microbes. She has been looking at datasets of 6 species from 10 research projects that include lab and field samples with 394 libraries. She used three sample prep methods: SRNA, MRNA and Ribominus. The three methods can yield different results. For example, RNA viruses are not picked up using the MRNA method. The Ribominus method may be more cost effective than SRNA, although information-rich results are obtained with both. Providentia stuartii, a gram-negative bacillus, is an example of a good indicator species at 25oC.

 

Kyle Harrison looked at microbial community associations with segregated lab populations of stable flies. He worked with two lab strains that had been maintained separately for many years. Flies from both were grown in normal media (70% water) and media that was somewhat drier (64%). Media was sampled for bacterial composition over time. The bacterial communities differed somewhat between the strains, although nearly half of the taxa could only be classified as “bacteria.”  The final moisture levels of the two strains also differed, with higher final  moisture levels present in media from one of the strains than the other in both normal and drier media.

 

Dana Nayduch presented Sara Neupane’s work on bacteria found in manure and house flies associated with dairy cattle in KS, OK, and TX in July-October. The work was sequence-based using 16S mRNA to look at OTUs (operational taxonomic units) and bacterial diversity. Findings: 1) flies share lots of OTUs with what’s in the manure; 2) shared OTUs account for >91% of total sequences; 3) unique OTUs were found in 54% of fly samples and 4.7% of manure samples; 4) 80% of fly and manure samples included potentially harmful bacteria; 5) there was a high prevalence of potential human pathogens; 6) there was a low prevalence of bovine respiratory pathogens. In summary, flies can be used as a proxy for surveillance of pathogens associated with animal agriculture.

 

T.C. Crippen has been looking at prevalence of bacteria from sub-habitats within cattle facilities. Using shotgun metamicrobiomics, she is finding lots of flies with unique bacterial species and that relatively few species of bacteria were found in multiple manure sub-habitats within the farms.

 

Victoria Pickens has been using a culture-based approach to examining bacterial carriage by house flies, with a particular emphasis on multi-drug-resistant coliforms. Flies were collected from beef and dairy farms and bacteria were cultured and examined for resistance to tetracycline, ampicillin, florfenicol, and others. Flies from beef farms had greater levels of multi-drug-resistant bacteria than dairy farms. Resistance to tetracycline, ampicillin, and florfenicol was most common. Multi-drug-resistance was most common in E. coli, Shigella, and Klebsiella. Resistance genes mostly occurred on the genome rather than on plasmids.

 

Brandon Lyons reported on a new project to look at insects as vectors of antimicrobial resistance genes on livestock farms. The initial emphasis will be on broilers and caged-layer poultry. They are looking at house flies, Ophyra/Hydrotaea, blow flies, cockroaches, and lesser mealworms. The GI tract of sampled insects is being removed and sent for testing.

 

 

Ted Burgess led the discussion of Objective 4: Characterize population biology of biting and nuisance flies.

 

Lauren Beebe reported on blood meal identification from stable flies collected from an exotic animal park in Texas that is bordered by cattle farms. Preliminary results have shown that flies at the park had fed on humans (1 fly), yaks (1 fly), cattle (2), and elk (3). Discussion followed to help identify interrupted feedings.

 

Alec Gerry reported on several projects, mainly from research done by students Xinmi Zhang and Laura Harmon. Xinmi looked at agreement between morphological and molecular methods for identifying California Culicoides species. Some species could only be separated by one method but not the other. Laura Harmon is expanding this work to cover the Western US with NEON sites. Xinmi Zhang also found that Culicoides sonorensis and C. sahara were attracted to CO2 and UV, whereas other species were attracted to UV only. Xinmi also has looked at Culicoides diel activity and found that it is controlled by many factors. Finally, Culicoides were found to be active on warm days in the winter, but so far none of these flies have been found with blue tongue virus (BTV).

 

Bethany McGregor reported on host site usage and Culicoides larval emergence. This work is being done at Konza Prairie Biological Station, where there are bison populations. By combining game camera imagery with larval emergence data, she was able to correlate fly emergence with host activity. Surprisingly, there was an inverse relationship between animal activity and Culicoides emergence. Is this because of animals trampling larval sites? Animal activity changing the chemistry or biome of the larval sites?

 

Nancy Hinkle asked a question of the group. What should she tell cattle producers when they ask her when to treat for horn flies? Horn fly counts vary depending on temperature, season, time of day, vegetation height, cattle breed, and whether animals are bulls/steers or cows. This was left as an open question.

 

Alec Gerry then led the discussion of Objective 5. Extension and community engagement.

 

Alec recently held two Dairy Pest Manage Management Strategic Workshops, one each in northern and southern California. USDA funds the development of Pest Management Strategic Plans for various commodities. Alec will use the results of the workshops to develop a plan, which will be reviewed by USDA and eventually published. The producers were mostly concerned about stable flies, house flies, and lice, and also mosquitoes and ants. Alec found that a surprising number of producers in the south had concerns with spinose ear tick. Some were concerned about the foothill tick, which transmits the pathogen responsible for epizootic bovine abortion (Pajaroellobacter abortibovis). The ticks, Ornithodoros coriaceus, are also known as the pajaroello tick. Some producers were concerned about the effects of lepidopteran larvae on grasslands.

 

Alec also gave an update on the VetPestX website. The database now includes dogs and cats and includes FDA-approved parasiticides such as Ivomec. There was an extended discussion about the ongoing challenge of keeping the database up to date, especially regarding registrations in individual states. Alec announced that Amy Murillo is conducting a poultry ectoparasite survey. If S1076 members would like to participate, they can contact Amy, who will send them traps to place in poultry houses.

 

Erika Machtinger reported on usage metrics for the veterinaryentomology.org website. Users are up 122% since 2020. Most visitors are from the US and the UK. Over half of the visits were from mobile devices. The top four visited pages were those for sticktight fleas, chicken mites, northern fowl mites, and VetPestX. In other metrics related to the grant that Erika received, the special collection on pest flies is already receiving substantial numbers of citations, especially the papers on house flies and stable flies. Of the YouTube videos, the three with the greatest numbers of hits were nuisance flies in poultry, harmful flies of cattle, and IPM on animal facilities.

 

Day 2

 

Erika led the business meeting. After some discussion, it was decided that we will meet in Las Cruces, NM in 2024 (hosted by Ulises Sanchez and Brandon Smythe) and in Stillwater Oklahoma in 2025 (hosted by Justin Talley). There was a consensus that we try to rotate among the three major US time zones. This would put the meeting somewhere in the Eastern time zone for 2026.

 

Cliff Lamb, the  Administrative Advisor for S1076, spoke to the group via Zoom. He said that he also advises 3 other groups and that S1076 has a strong reputation.  He reminded us that the annual report is due within 30 days of the meeting. He also reminded us that our project renewal must be submitted by March 15, 2023 and encouraged us to provide a list of potential reviewers. The project can keep its project number and name if we like, but the Objectives should be refreshed.

 

Michele Colby, NIFA NPL, gave an update on NIFA funding. Her detailed report, which included due dates for some competitive programs, is attached to these minutes as Appendix II.

 

The discussion then turned to succession planning. After considerable discussion it was decided that we elect someone who will serve 2 years as vice-chair, two-years as chair, then 1 year as past chair. Brandon Smythe offered to serve as the new vice-chair elect and was approved by unanimous acclamation. Chris Geden will serve as secretary for the 2024 meeting, after which a person will be elected for this role.

 

At this point, the discussion focused on project renewal. The group agreed to expand the title and mission of the project from flies to all arthropods. Reviewer comments on the first draft of the expanded proposal were positive. Erika then presented information on NIFA guidelines for preparing a strong proposal.

 

After some discussion, the following objectives and related leaders were identified:

·         Objective 1. Value-added innovations to managing arthropods of veterinary concern (new technologies, precision agriculture). Leaders: Trout Fryxell and Olafson

·         Objective 2. Assessment and development of management approaches for arthropods of veterinary concern and integrated pest management. Leaders: Brewer and Boxler

·         Objective 3. Develop and strengthen effective surveillance and monitoring of arthropod pests of veterinary concern and associated arthropod-transmitted pathogens. Leaders: Burgess and Estep

·         Objective 4. Investigate the ecology, biology, evolution, genetics, and behavior of arthropods of veterinary concern. Leaders: Olds and Schults

·         Objective 5. Develop and deliver science-based educational materials focused on management of arthropods of veterinary concern through outlets such as mass media, peer-reviewed publications, extension fact sheets, webinars, veterinaryentomology.org, social media, and other sources as appropriate. Leaders: Gerry, Machtinger, and Loftin

 

 

Suggestions were then made for potential reviewers, including Andrew Lee, Ron Byford, Bethia King, Pete Teel, Laura Harrington, Dave Taylor, Mike Fletcher, Brad Mullens.

 

The project needs overall sections on the following, all of which have limited numbers of words/characters allowed.

·         General introduction

·         Related, current, and previous work

·         Methods

·         Measurements of progress and results (outputs, outcomes and projected impacts, milestones)

·         Organization/governance

·         Literature cited

·         Outreach plan

 

Erika and Becky will set up Google drive sheets for each of the objectives. Project members should provide info on all the above (except governance) along with their proposed research in the respective Objective pages. Erika and Becky will distill these submissions to draft the overall sections that are outside the individual sections. Remember that the submission deadline is March 15. Please submit your content to the respective objectives by dates in the email from Erika on Jan 11: January 20 (self-identify in objectives), February 3 (enter your content into the objectives), and February 24 (objective leaders send content to Erika)

 

Meeting adjourned 11:15 AM

 

Accomplishments

Publications

Impact Statements

1. Although there are numerous strategies for control of house fly populations, chemical control has been favored in many facilities. Products with pyrethroid active ingredients have been used predominantly for >35 years in space sprays. As a result, strong selection for pyrethroid resistance has led to reduced control of many populations. Reliance on a limited number of insecticides for decades has created fly control problems necessitating the discovery and formulation of new control chemistries. Fluralaner is a relatively new insecticide belonging to the isoxazoline class. These insecticides target the glutamate- and gamma-aminobutyric acid-gated (GABA) chloride channels, which is a different mode of action from other insecticides used against house flies. Although it is not currently registered for house fly control in the United States, previous work has shown that fluralaner is highly toxic to house flies and that there was limited cross-resistance found in laboratory strain having high levels of resistance to other insecticides. Work from our multistate group showed populations already had high levels of cross-resistance to fluralaner and that resistance could be rapidly selected to high levels. Thus, the utility of fluralaner for house fly control seems questionable.

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