An Assessment of Cattle Dip Functionality, Challenges, and Alternative Tick Control Strategies in Elgeyo Marakwet County, Kenya

The structural management of cattle ectoparasites among smallholder dairy and pastoral systems faces critical systemic challenges. Widespread collapse of public livestock infrastructure has decentralised vector control, shifting the burden onto individual households. This cross-sectional study evaluated relationships between infrastructure failure, farm-level chemical selection, application frequencies, and risks of vector resistance and occupational hazards in Elgeyo Marakwet County, Kenya. A survey of 424 livestock-keeping households, assessment of 176 communal dips, focus group discussions, and key informant interviews were conducted. Data revealed a 64.2% operational failure rate among communal cattle dips, forcing 80% of smallholders to adopt manual knapsack hand-spraying. This deficit drove concurrent reliance on WHO Class II (moderately hazardous) synthetic pyrethroids and organophosphate blends (e.g., Sypertix, Daltix, Duodip), with 80% household usage. To compensate for sub-lethal under-dosing and incomplete animal wetting, 70% of farmers sprayed weekly and 40% twice weekly. Tick-borne diseases accounted for 40.8% of the clinical disease burden, correlating inversely with dip functionality. Decentralisation has dismantled uniform vector suppression, trapping smallholders in chemical over-application cycles that accelerate acaricide resistance and elevate toxicological risks in milk and meat value chains. Rehabilitation of communal dips, synchronised chemical rotations, and extension training on standardised dosing are urgently required