New Cattle Ear Tag Available for Horn Fly Control

Dr. Alec Gerry from the Department of Entomology at University of California Riverside provided the following information:

Y-Tex Coporation has recently registered (in 2010) a new ear tag called “XP 820” for beef and non-lactating dairy cattle in California.  The XP 820 ear tag is registered for control of horn flies and several tick species with control lasting up to several months.  The label also indicates that the tags will reduce face flies when two treated tags are used per animal.

This new cattle ear tag is the first to contain abamectin (a macrocyclic lactone) which provides these tags with a different chemistry than other tags available with organophosphate (OP) and synthetic pyrethroid chemicals.  Abamectin has not previously been used for control of cattle pests in the United States. This new chemistry will make these tags effective against flies which are already resistant to insecticides in other chemical classes currently available with ear tags.  Rotate the use of the XP 820 ear tags with other ear tags containing different insecticide chemistries to reduce the development of insecticide resistance within targeted fly populations.

For more information on the XP 820 cattle ear tag, visit the Y-Tex Corporation web site at: www.ytex.com .  The University of California does not recommend any specific company or product and has not evaluated the efficacy of the XP 820 ear tags.