Prevalence and Risk Factors of Tick Infestation in Cattle in River Nile State, Sudan

Abstract

Ticks are important ectoparasites especially in tropical and subtropical areas, cause direct and indirect damages to animals and leading to great economic losses. Tick and tick-borne diseases are widespread in the Sudan and constitute a major obstacle to livestock production. In order to determine the prevalence of Ixodid ticks in cattle and to identify the major risk factors for the occurrence of tick infestation in River Nile State, a cross-sectional study was conducted from July to November, 2018 in five localities: Shendi, Al Matama, Eldammar, Atbara and Barberusing multistage sampling method. A total of 355 cattle were randomly selected; they were of both sexes, their ages were less than 2 and above 5 years old, different breeds, and they are kept under open, closed and semi closed systems. To identify the potential risk factors associated with tick prevalence, a pretested questionnaire was used and the data of host characteristics (age, sex, breed, coat color,predilection site, and herd size) and farm-related information (location, housing, rearing system, feeding, hygiene and tick control) were recorded. Out of the 355 examined cattle, 224 were infested. The overall prevalence of tick infestation was found to be (63.1%). In univariate analysis using Chi-square test, the difference in the prevalence of tick infestation was found to be statistically significant between the age groups (x2 =25.941; P= 0.000), sex groups (x2 =24.185; P = 0.000), types of housing (x2 =17.131; P = 0 .000), keeping cattle with or without tick control (x2 = 46.910; P = 0.000), The applied tick control method (x2 = 50.059; P = 0.000) and removing of manure (x2 = 32.926; P = 0.000). However, the difference was not significant between: locality, breed, coat color and herd size groups, and the other factors: raising cattle with other animal species, feeding type and temporal distribution of ticks throughout the year (P>0.05). A total of 2,018 ticks were collected during the investigation period including 1148 males (56.9%) and 870 females (43.1%). Two tick genera and six species were identified. Hyalomma anatolicum was the dominant tick species 1565 (77.6%), followed by Rhipicephalus evertsi evertsi 275(13.6%), Rhipicephalus sanguineous139 (6.9%), Rhipicephalus praetextatus 35 (1.7%), Hyalomma rufipes 2 (0.1%) and Hyalomma truncatum 2 (0.1%). One hundred and fifteen cattle were infested in the tail (51.3%), followed by 30 cattle infested in the udder (13.4%), 14 were infested in the ear (6.25%), 7 were found infested in the brisket(3.12%), 4 were infested in the knee (1.8%), 2 were infested in testes (0.9%) and finally only 1 cattle was infested in eye (0.4%). In addition, 51 cattle (22.7%) were found infested in different sites. The current study showed that ticks are prevalent in cattle in River Nile State where tick-borne diseases (TBDs) are common. Therefore an appropriate control program of ticks and TBDs in River Nile State should be designed and implemented.