Effect of Face Flies (Diptera: Muscidae) on Weight Gains and Feed Efficiency in Beef Heifers1

Publisher Website
Google Scholar
Abstract
The release of Musca autumnalis (De Geer) on 18-month-old Hereford heifers in Saran-screened pens for 84 days in 1979 and 112 days in 1980 resulted in average infestation levels of 13 flies per face per pen and 12 flies per face per pen, respectively, for the duration of the tests. These levels of face flies had no significant effect on feed consumption (10.71 kg/day fly-free animals vs. 10.25 kg/day fly-stressed animals) feed efficiency (feed conversion ratio of 9.29 for fly-free animals vs. 9.31 for fly-stressed animals), or average daily gain (1.16 kg for fly-free animals vs. 1.13 for fly-stressed animals). Even though irritation of the eyes was evident, no clinical cases of infectious bovine keratoconjunctivitis (IBK) were observed.

This publication has 5 references indexed in Scilit: