It might not be the most self-respectful flavor in the world , but a newfangled study has establish it might be worth paint your cows to look like zebra .
Previous studieshave demonstrate that black and white banding may protect zebras , other brute , and man from horsefly bites , as well as other parentage - sucking critter . Experiments have shownthat these flies tend to avoid black - and - white striped surfaces , while other written report have suggest that the chevron may cause a form of motion camouflage targeted at the insects ' imagination , fuddle them much in the room thatoptical illusionslike theBarberpole Illusionand theWagon Wheel Effect(below ) obscure us .
Now a work , published inPLOS ONE , has sought to find out whether this can be implement to cows . And effective news , everybody , it very much can . Japanese researchers paint zebra - style stripes on one chemical group of cows , black stripes ( on black physical structure ) on another , and left other cows un - paint as control moo .
The cows were then observed for fly - repelling behaviour ( read/write head throws , ear beats , pegleg stamps , skin twitch , and trail film ) and the act of flies landing on their body was weigh .
The zebra - kine were found to have over 50 percent few biting fly front on their bodies than those in the control group , with no significant differences between the black - striped cows and the control . They also saw a diminution in rainfly - repelling conduct in the zebra - striped cows of around 20 percentage . few biting rainfly were landing on them , and they were less bother by them .
The team believes that if the results can be replicated , artifical streak could be used as a better direction to combat biting flies than traditional pesticide . As well as being tinny , the stripes are non - toxic and goodish for stock , as well as better for the environment .
" bite tent flap are serious stock pests that cause economic going in animal production , " the authorswrite .
" We found that paint zebra - like stripe on cows can decrease the incidence of biting flies set ashore on person by 50 percentage . This oeuvre provides an choice to the manipulation of schematic pesticide for mitigating biting fly attack on livestock that improves animal benefit and human health , in addition to helping correct the problem of pesticide resistance in the environment . "
