Distribution and prevalence of tick infestation in cattle in Babille district, eastern Ethiopia

摘要

Ticksareoneofthemostimportantectoparasitesofcattlewhichcauseseriouseconomiclossthroughmortalityofanimals,decreasedproduction,downgradingandrejectionofskinandhide.AcrosssectionalstudywasconductedtodeterminetheprevalenceanddistributionoftickwithrespecttorelatedpotentialriskfactorsinBabilledistrict,easternEthiopia.Standardphysicalanddirectstereomicroscopytechniqueswereemployedforidentificationofticks.nbsp;nbsp;Outofthetotal384cattleexamined,360(93.8%)werefoundtobeinfestedbytickparasites.Atotalof1984adulttickswerecollectedfromtheanimalbodypartsandwereidentifiedtogeneraandspecieslevel.Fourspeciesofixodidaetickswereidentifiedfromthestudyarea.Amongtheticks,Amblyommacohaerens(41.5%)wasthemostprevalent,whileAmblyommavariegatumwastheleastprevalent(6.5%)tickspeciesrecordedinthestudy.AllspeciesoftickshadmorethanonemaletofemaleratioexceptRhipicephalus(Boophilus)decoloratus(0.001:1).Therewasnostatisticallysignificantassociationbetweenassociatedriskfactorsandtickprevalenceexceptforbodyconditionscore.Cattlewithpoorbodyconditionhavesignificantly(p=0.02)highertickburdenthancattlewiththeotherbodyconditionscores.Alltickspeciesweredistributedandattachedwithstatisticallysignificant(p=0.00)variationamongdifferentpartsofthebodyofcattle,whileallticksinflictsignificantlydiverse(p0.05)typesoflesionexceptA.variegatum.Overall,thepresentstudyrevealedveryhighprevalenceoftickinfestationthatcouldpotentiallyhampertheproductivityofcattleinthestudyarea.Hence,astrategiccontrolmethodshouldbeputinplacetocombatandreducetheadverseeffectoftickinfestationincattleinthearea.