Many studies about Haematobia irritans have been made due to the damages and worries it causes to cattle breeding in many countries. The common name of the fly is related to its behavior. In Europe and the United States of America it is named horn-fly because it stays right on the base of the horns in order to protect itself from low temperatures; in Latin America, however, it is known as "mosca-da-paleta" because of its preferred localization on the shoulder of cattle. Biological aspects of the bovines can lead to different levels of fly infestation in the herd. Mean numbers of flies on different anatomic regions and individual infestations were evaluated in 60 Nelore bulls with the same zootechnic features during 1998 in Araçatuba city, State of São Paulo, Brazil. Both sides of the animals were filmed, and the number of flies was recorded in cassette tapes. Fly counts and their delimitation on 15 anatomic regions were performed from film viewing. During rainy days a significant increase (p<0.05) in number of flies in the abdominal region was observed. Shoulders, forelegs, back and ribs showed the highest number of flies (p<0.05). The evaluation of individual infestation revealed less than 50 flies on 50% of the cattle, 50 to 100 flies on 38% and over 100 flies on 12% of them.
Haematobia irritans; horn fly; localization; anatomic regions; bovine; sensitivity; infestation
