THE ECONOMICS OF SYSTEMIC INSECTICIDE TREATMENT FOR REDUCTION OF SLAUGHTER TRIM LOSS CAUSED BY CATTLE GRUBS, HYPODERMA SPP.

Publisher Website
Google Scholar
Abstract
A study in 15 Alberta and Saskatchewan abattoirs showed that in 1968 cattle grubs caused damage to carcasses exceeding $654,000. Forty percent of the loss occurred in the 5% of the carcasses that had 11 or more grubs. Mean loss per carcass was $1.54 in Alberta and $1.04 in Saskatchewan. Mean loss was $0.55 in southern Alberta and $2.10 in northern Alberta. This difference was attributed to high mortality of grub pupae in the spring of 1967, caused by abnormal climatic conditions in southern Alberta. Systemic insecticide treatment would have been profitable in northern Alberta and Saskatchewan, but not in southern Alberta.Applying the study data to records from systemic insecticide tests showed that preslaughter treatment of moderately infested cattle was profitable. Applying the study data to records from a nine-year study in an isolated herd showed that six years of systemic treatment of the herd suppressed the grub populations so that by the third year no apparent profit accrued from reduction of carcass damage in the portion of the herd slaughtered. With cessation of treatment, however, the grub population increased so rapidly that in three years the original profit structure had recurred. Thus continuous herd treatment was inherently profitable.Under existing market practices in western Canada, there is no method of returning either the cost of treatment, or the profit accruing in the abattoir, to the applicator of the treatment.