Dr. Murai Éva szerk.: Parasitologia Hungarica 22. (Budapest, 1989)

Filth fly breeding sites on a Hungarian large-scale cattle farm Dr. András DEMÉNY Department of Parasitology and Zoology, University of Veterinary Science, Budapest, Hungary "Filth fly breeding sites on a Hungarian large-scale cattle farm" - Demény, A. - Parasit. hung., 22: 99-107. 1989. ABSTRACT. Filth fly breeding sites in calf and dairy cow houses of a Hungarian cattle farm were monitored and mapped. Considerable fly emergence was detected on the floor where manure and/or manure-feed mixture was allowed to accumulate. It was found that (1) the majority of species in the manurebreeding fly communities are obligate coprophagous species without veterinary importance; (2) all species of veterinary importance develop in large numbers in both stable types studied. A reasonable application of any larvicide requires a preliminary survey ofthe potential breeding sites. KEY WORDS: Insecta, Diptera, filth flies, breeding sites, cattle stables. Large-scale technology has become dominant in modern livestock production. However, good quality animal production requires hygienic conditions. In our field of interest, fly control in cattle stables is important since flies are a nuisance to animals by sucking blood and discharges, threatening hygiene and bothering humans besides acting as vectors (see e.g.PAPP 1975). Insecticide treatment against dipterous imagos does not seem to be an optimal mode of control. This is why the control of Immature stages is regarded as important. Biological control methods are improving constantly. Another category of control is the application of insect growth regulators (IGR compounds) with which numerous laboratory and field experiments have been carried out (e.g. POST and VINCENT 1973; WRIGHT 1975; BARKER and JONES 1976; BREEDEN et al. 1976; HALL and FOEHSE 1980; KNAPP and HERALD 1982; FARKAS and SOUNTHONE 1985; and RTBBECK et al. 1987). A preliminary condition of any reasonable larvicide treatment is the knowledge of breeding sites in the stables and in their environs (PAPP 1975L Early dipterological and physical studies were performed by KÜHLHORN (1964, 1968) in stables of small Bavarian farms but his results are not interprétable for lack of knowledge of the species composition of the dipterous communities (e.g. without any rearing from manure samples). PAPP (1975) published a paper on fly communities of stables of three Hungarian and Afghan cattle farms based on rearing imagos and sweep net collections. Most ofthe fly species found were innocuous, obligate coprophagous ones. Breeding of important filth fly species in great quantities was found only in places where manure was stagnant.