Characterisation of cattle immune response associated with buffalo fly burden using serum proteomics

Control of buffalo flies (BF) relies mainly on chemical methods; however, resistance to insecticides is widespread in BF populations. Breeding for resistance to BF represents a possible alternative but direct phenotyping of animals is laborious and often inaccurate. It is known that naturally exposed cattle develop an immune response against BF and closely related horn fly (HF) (Haematobia irritans exigua) antigens (Kerlin and Allingham 1992). The response to the latter has been shown to affect HF blood consumption and level of infestation (Breijo et al. 2016). In addition, differential antibody responses against Anopheles gambiae (S.) salivary proteins on naturally exposed individuals have been used as biomarkers to determine host exposure to bites (Rizzo et al. 2014). Here we hypothesize that cattle immune response against natural BF infestation varies according to the BF burden, and such variation in immune responses could be used as an indirect indicator of BF burden as well as biomarker(s) for BF resistance.