Abundances of Ectoparasite of Sheep around West Shoa Zone Gindeberet Woreda

Abstract

A cross sectional study was carried out in West Shoa Zone of Oromia regioninal state in Gindeberet woreda from june 20/,2017 to October 2017, .Sheep are the most important farm animal in our country, special dominant livestock, providing skin or wool and cash income in addition to food subsistence value obtained from livestock production. However due to the ectoparasite there is loss of skin value, income and wool due to poor management problem. The purpose of this study was to identify major ectoparasites of sheep and to determine their prevalence in the study area and to assess the magnitudes of these parasites in relation to sex, age and body condition. Out of 200 sheep examined 133 (66.5%) sheep were infested with the major ectoparasite. The major ectoparasite identified were ticks 31%, followed by lice 15.5%, fleas 12.5%, Melophagus ovinus 7% and Mange mites 0.5%. The overall infestation with ectoparasites was higher in females (37.5%) than males (29%). The overall prevalence in association with age categories was higher in adult (34%) than in the young (32.5%). The prevalence of major ectoparasite based on the BCS was found to be higher in poor (33.5%) than the (21.5%) medium and the good (11.5%) from in the overall occurrence of ectoparasites. The higher prevalence of ticks, lice, fleas, M.ovinus, and mangemites were observed in female and males. The highest prevalence of tick infestation (n=62) were observed in the area, among ectoparasite ticks were the most prevalent parasites (n=62) with the prevalence of 31% in the area, while the prevalence of mangemites was 0.5 %( n=1). Based on age classification the prevalence of Ticks (17.5%), lice (9%), fleas (7.5%), Melophagus ovinus (or sheep ked) (4%), and mange mite (0.5%) were highly prevalent in the adults than young’s (13.5%), (6.5%), (5%) and (3%) respectively. From the result of this study it is possible to conclude that ectoparasite infestation has affected drawback in the production of sheep at the study area.