A revolutionary new way of controlling parasites such as ticks on game has just been introduced by Afrivet: acaricdal paint balls for the spot treatment and control of tick infestations. The principle is exactly the same as with conventional recreational paintballs, but the paintballs contain different concentrations of Flumethrin for the fast and effective control of ticks.

Ticks on game in the smaller wildlife parks are regarded as a major production constraint and threaten the well-being of a large number of wild animals. In severe cases, ticks can cause major structural damage, particularly in eland. The intensification of the game farming industry has led to higher tick burdens on animals that normally do not have any problems associated with tick infestations.

Cattle and sheep farmers routinely vaccinate their animals to prevent diseases, which commonly occur in their region. When one considers the value of the wildlife rancher’s giraffe (average of R16 606,90 in 2010 versus an average of less than R5 000 for cattle and R1 000 for sheep) should the wildlife rancher not consider vaccination of his giraffe as an ‘insurance policy’?

Obviously, getting giraffe into a crush annually to vaccinate them is not feasible. However, there are ways of achieving successful disease control through vaccination. Capture and relocation offers one such opportunity.