Prevalence and Species Composition of Ticks Infesting Cattle In and Around Bishoftu Town, Oromia Region, Ethiopia

Abstract

A cross section study was conducted from October 2013 to March 2014 in and around Bishoftu town with the objectives of determining the prevalence of bovine tick species within groups of age, sex, breed and body condition scores under different management systems and to assess the effects of different tick species on the packed cell volume. Out of the 384 cattle examined, 270 (70.31%) were found to be infested by one or more tick species. About 1066 ticks were collected and the collected tick were identified to genera and species level, four genera; namely Ambylomma, Rhipicephalus (Boophilus) and Hyalomma and five species were identified of, which Ambylomma variegatum was the most abundant tick species comprising of 43.6 % of the total collection and the least abundant tick species was Hyalomma marginatum rufipes (4.7%). The association of the prevalence of tick infestation with different risk factors was assessed to be statistically significant between sex, body condition, breed of cattle and management. However, it was statistically insignificant between the age group of animals. Male animals were statistically significantly infested more than females, which was 79.09% and 58.53%, respectively. Local breed were statistically significantly infested more than crossbreed, which were 82.75% and 31.91%, respectively. Medium and poor body condition animals were statistically significantly infested ticks than good body conditioned cattle, which were 76.70%, 74.24% and 17.94%, respectively. There was no statistically significant variation between the age groups, however, adult age group was more infested than the young age group, which was 74.56% and 58.1%. Cattle kept under extensive production system were highly infested than in those kept under semi-intensive production system with statistically significant difference. There was no significant difference between tick infestation and anemia but tick-infested cattle have lower mean packed cell volume (PCV) than the non-ticks infested cattle, which was 27.90% and 29.43%, respectively. Therefore further research should be undertaken to study the exact effect of ticks on the packed cell volume (PCV) and effective tick control programs should be formulated and implemented based on the patterns and factors of ticks responsible for their distribution.