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This study was carried out to investigate the fly count during different periods of the day during fly season and to show the effect of fly annoyance on buffalo behaviour and milk production and to investigate the efficacy of Butox ®, a commercially available fly repellent in reducing fly numbers. Five Egyptian adult female buffalo cows,6 years old, were used in the study. Both fly count and fly avoidance behaviors were recorded for two weeks before application of Butox ® and for the same period after application. Each animal was observed for 10 min, 3 times a day to estimate the fly count per fore and hind legs and the frequency of specified responses occurrence to fly annoyance. Milk production per individual buffalo was recorded for 2 weeks before and after the fly repellent application. The obtained results indicated that there was highly significant differences in the fly count between non treated and treated buffalo cows with Butox ®. The mean fly count was 13.48 and 3.22 fly/leg/min for the untreated and the treated animal , respectively. The highest fly count was recorded at 12 at noon period of the day (11.77 fly/leg/ min), while the lowest fly count was recorded at 8 am period of the day (4.91 fly/leg/min). There was highly significant difference in the fly count per minute between the fore and hind legs of buffalo as it was 11.33 and 5.37 fly/min for the fore and hind legs, respectively. There were highly significant differences ( p 0.001) in the performance of fly avoidance behaviour between treated and non-treated buffaloes with Butox ®. The highest observed fly avoidance behaviour was the skin twitching (30.44times/min) followed by tail switch (18.75/min) and ear flicking (16.54times/min) for the non treated buffaloes, while the lowest observed fly avoidance were hind leg stamp (0.55times /min) followed by head shaking (0.74times/min) and fore leg stamp (0.79/min) for the treated buffaloes. The highest avoidance behaviour was that which was recorded at 12 at noon period of the day followed by at 4 PM period while the lowest avoidance behaviour was that recorded at 8 AM period of the day.There was no significant difference in the daily milk production between treated and non-treated buffaloes with the fly repellent. The daily milk yield was 4.8 and 4.9 Liter/day for non-treated and treated buffaloes, respectively. It was concluded that deltametherin application has a significant effect in reducing fly population landing on dairy buffaloes and treated buffaloes with the fly repellent (deltametherin) displayed significantly fewer avoidance behaviour to fly attack than non-treated buffaloes. Although, there was no significant effect of fly repellent application on daily milk production, the reduced fly population on dairy buffaloes and the reduced performance of avoidance behaviour in treated buffaloes has a good impact on welfare and health condition of dairy buffaloes.

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