Abstract
Across section, study of tick was conducted to identify types of tick species and determine the Prevalence of tick infestation in small ruminants in and around Dire Dawa Administrative council, Eastern Ethiopia. Collection and identification of the ticks were undertaken from November 2014 to May 2015. The overall prevalence of tick infestation in the study area was 278 (72.39% /384). All visible individual adult ticks were collected from the body of 196 goats and 188 sheep. The prevalence of tick infestation in goats and sheep was found to be 73.9% and 70.7%, respectively. In this study, eight species of ticks, which grouped under four genera, were identified. The most abundant species found in this study were Rhipicephalus pulchellus (34.1%), Amblyomma variegatum (24.5%), Rhipicephalus evertsievertsi (22.1%), Hyalomma truncatum (15.6%), Hyalomma marginatum rufipes (12.2%) and Amblyomma gemma (10.9 according to predominance. Hyalomma dromedari (4.2%) and Boophilus decoloratus was the minor species observed on both goats and sheep in the study area. The difference in prevalence of tick infestation was found statistically significant variation (P < 0.05) between the sex, age exception of Boophilus decoloratus and Hyalomma dromedari in all cases male ticks dominated females.
Highlights
Ethiopia has the largest number of livestock in Africa, approximately 44.3 million cattle, 46.9 million sheep and goats, more than 1.0 million camels, 4.5 million equine, and 40.0 million chickens [11]
The current study revealed that tick infestation is still widespread and most significant external Parasites of small ruminants in the study area
This study a wide spread occurrence of tick infestation in small ruminant was observed and eight species of ticks grouped under four genera were identified
Summary
Ethiopia has the largest number of livestock in Africa, approximately 44.3 million cattle, 46.9 million sheep and goats, more than 1.0 million camels, 4.5 million equine, and 40.0 million chickens [11]. In Ethiopia, there are 47 species of ticks found on livestock, most of them have importance as vector, and disease-causing agents, have damaging effect on skin, and hide production [9]. Numerous studies have been conducted on tick and tick-borne diseases of ruminants in various parts of Ethiopia and several species of ticks belonging to genus Amblyomma, Boophilus, Rhipicephalus, Hyalomma and Haemaphysalis have been reported. Many studies on tick distribution, prevalence, species identification, effect on domestic animals and methods of prevention were done as compared to other important skin diseases of animals in Ethiopia. Both hard ticks (Ixodidae) and soft ticks (Argasidae) are known to affect small ruminants. Even though different studies were done on camel ticks, cattle ticks and other domestic animals in the Eastern part of the country [19] little attention was given to ectoparasites small ruminants in the [327]
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