A study of the incidence of Lucilia sericata fly in ovine in Mosul city

Abstract

The objective of the current study is to examine the incidence of Lucilia sericata larvae in the sheep in Mosul city, Iraq. From a total of 670 sheep examined, 92 sheep of them 13.7% were infested with Lucilia sericata larvae. For the 516 larvae found in the sheep, 146 (28.3%) was detected to be of the first instars larva, 120 (23.3%) was second in stars larva and 250 (48.4) as third instars larva. As the average number of larvae in the infested animals was 5.6. The infestation percentage in males was higher 26.3% compared to the females 4.2%, where there is no significant difference reported concerning with the age. The prevalence of Lucilia sericata larvae was 8.4% in spring, 38.9 % in summer, 2.4% in autumn and 1.5% in winter. The difference in terms of seasons were statistically significant. Sheep in the rural areas had higher infestation rate in comparison to the sheep in urban area. Most lesions occurred in the breech region, flank, leg and inter digital space of a foot. The percentage of adult flies that merged was 73.3% and the pupariation period was 12 to 20 hours, while the incubation and moulting periods were 7 to 10 days. All flies were similar in the external appearance and belonging to Lucilia sericata causing strike disease in sheep.