Fig. 1

Tick scoring for host resistance phenotyping of Brangus steers. A Heatmap representation of the tick scoring data collected from 30 Brangus steers across twelve timepoints showing clustering of the most resistant (bottom) and least resistant (top). Tick scores represent the estimated number of adult ticks that develop 21 days after a single infestation with R.australis larvae, where 1 = 0–50 ticks, 2 = 50–100 ticks, 3 = 100–200 ticks, 4 = 200–300 ticks, 5 = more than 300 ticks, blank = not scored. The vertical colour bar indicates the value that each colour represents in the heatmap from low (green) to high (red). B The mean tick score (MTS) ± standard deviation (SD) calculated across week 8–15 for 10 animals selected as divergent in host resistant phenotype. C Boxplots showing the comparison of MTS (week 8–15) values between the high (HR, n = 5) and low (LR, n = 5) host resistance phenotypes