Relationship between ticks and zebu cattle in southern Uganda

Abstract

Tick populations were observed on zebu (Bos indicus) cattle over a period of 2 years at Entebbe, Uganda where the climate was thought to be highly favourable for the free-living stages of ticks. collections of all instars of ticks were made from the body surfaces of the cattle at intervals of between 1 and 5 weeks. The species recorded in order of decreasing abundance were Rhipicephalus appendiculatus, Amblyomma variegatum, Boophilus decoloratus, Rhipicephalus evertsi evertsi, Rhipicephalus simus, Rhipicephalus compositus and Hyalomma marginatum rufipes. The rankings of the cattle based on burdens of any particular species of tick were always correlated with their rankings for other species; animals that carried more adult stages of a species also carried more of its immature stages. There were more adult males than females of R. appendiculatus, A. variegatum and R. e. evertsi even when the cattle had had all ticks removed 1 week previously; several possible mechanisms are suggested to explain the biased sex ratio. It is concluded that there is promise for improvement in control of 3-host ticks by increasing the resistance of herds of zebu cattle by culling or selective breeding.