Personal opinion. "Home brews" are unwise and no-science

On request for Jim Jarred in Zambia who asked about cheaper acaricides and brews available in Botswana and Zimbabwe.  

Home made pour-on dips is a criminal offence under Regulation No. R1716 (26 July 1991) of the Fertilizers, Farm Feeds, Agricultural Remedies and Stock Remedies Act, 1947 (Act No. 36 of 1947).

Man and his own inventions have lost his battle against the Blue Tick registered pyrethroids and amidine pour-on acaricides without him even realizing it.

These products cost Animal Health Companies billions of dollars to research and test before it is safe to manufacture, just to find that their target market (game ranches and cattle producers) makes use of other untested and unvalidated means to combat Blue ticks and ensure the spread of dangerous tick transmitted diseases.

By these actions and also in terms of the unknown factors to climate change, ineffective tick control methods will ensure the active spreading of new viral dangers and other Tick Borne Diseases (TBD) through ticks.

It will endanger in the near future all animal life and economic investments in cattle and game. Congo Fever, Lassa- and Arena viruses, 3 of the 5 most dangerous viruses known to man, are tick borne and tick transmitted diseases.

Tick control is a serious professional matter and should never be accepted without professional advice and tested services.

Registered pyrethroids and amidine pour-on acaricides are developed and tested with the highest possible efficacy and safety in mind.

They therefore;

· Have no systemic effect on the targeted animals, by leaving no traces of the active ingredient or spreading components.

· Is not dangerous to man and or other warm blooded animals useful to man.

In my personal opinion, "Home brew" mixtures are dangerous concoctions and a criminal offence to be reported for the following reasons.

• The application of active ingredients is NEVER accurate and do have the ability to become systemic as a result of using the wrong solvents.
• Cooking oil, coconut oil, citronella oil, mineral oils and diesel often used in these concoctions, does not spread active ingredients to the critical point of control and predelection sites of the different ticks species, i.e. udder, tail, teats and ears.
• It distorts the molecular action and, with UV and rising temperature changes, possibly change the chemical combination and shuts off the molecular action of the active ingredient effective to eliminate the tick.
• Chemical agents that dilute and spread the active ingredient in terms of its science effectively, can never be bought in terms of the Law in the consumer market.
• The chemical formulation for Insecta (6 legged animals) vs. the formulation for Arachnida (8- legged animals) differs vastly and indifferently to the skin structure and absorbent qualities of the targeted parasite, so the molecule will not have the same efficacy and safety qualities when used and, might kill non-targeted species such as birds
• Crop protection products are used in these "home brew" mixtures, are severely injurious and poisonous to the skin structure of warm blooded animals, cattle and prize game.
• Wrongly concocted chemical formulations might infiltrate the skin and the animals might be severely chemically tarnished and poisoned.
• Their digestive system and blood metabolism means would not know how to break down the residual concoctions and might absorbed it into the animal’s fat layers, rendering it unfit for human consumption and can be seen as cancerous to man.
• Animal products consumed by man and contaminated with these poisonous active ingredients, might possibly the greatest cause of cancers and hormonal distortions in man.
• Tick larvae not effectively treated by this homebrew remedies, cause selection in the favour of resistant individuals and limit available types of control, even by registered remedies, due to the lack of acaricides available for control.
• Poorly formulated actives build up severe resistance to pyrethroids, due to over and under dosing and the uneven ineffective distribution of the active ingredient.
• In various parts of Southern Africa, the Blue Tick can no longer be controlled with pyrethroids due to misinterpretation and the lack and absence of measureable scientific tick control methods
• 15 farms under the current research have registered and tested 90% + resistance to pyrethiods.
• Some Co-ops do not even stock valuable products like Deadline anymore because the perception that the product is not effective.
• All the above mentioned farms have now recorded control periods between 30- 50 days between Deadline applications, a product previously seen as a product not effective anymore.
• It was therefore never true, as the product is used currently in the trial periods with resistance and all the farms have been recently tested, with this effect.
• The answer is therefor to be found in the scientific application of acaricides and a true understanding of the targeted ticks/ parasites in question 

I hope I did answer your question. I did not record your phone number but thank you for the question.

Pierre van Niekerk

pierrevn@telkomsa.net

0126674755

0822208386