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10-Minute Presentation

Medical, Urban, and Veterinary Entomology

10-min: MUVE, Veterinary Entomology and Related Disease Vector Research

Towards developing a standardized method for evaluating fly worry behaviors in horses

Wednesday, November 13, 2024
11:18 AM – 11:30 AM MST
Location: Phoenix Convention Center, 221 C, PCC
Oral Presentation
Stable flies (Stomoxys calcitrans) are obligate blood feeding muscid flies who feed primarily on the legs and body of large animals like horses and cattle. Their painful bites cause significant fly worry with animals exhibiting behaviors like leg stamping, tail swishing, skin twitching. Fly worry, and the efficacy of any fly control intervention is measured by recording animals and counting the number of fly worry events over a given time period. This process is laborious and open to human interpretation and error. In addition, the intensity of a behavior, how hard the horse stamps or swishes a tail, cannot be quantified visually without bias. This study attached accelerometers to the head, tail and legs of horses and compared data collected from horse activities including grazing, movement (walk, trot and canter) and compared them to fly worry behaviors. Using this data, a method for standardized unbiased evaluation of fly worry in horses using accelerometers is proposed.