Prevalence and distribution of hard ticks in cattle and buffaloes

A study to investigate prevalence of different genera of hard ticks was carried out in three districts of Punjab (Faisalabad, Jhang and Khanewal). Tick collection was made during July and August, 2008 from 30 livestock farms where each farm had more than 25 animals (cattle and buffaloes). Ticks were collected from the infested animals, irrespective of age, sex and weight. Six thousand two hundred sixty three ticks were collected from 71 cattle and 32 buffaloes. Over all prevalence of Hyalomma species is significantly higher than other species of hard ticks (p>0.05). In sex-wise distribution, it was found that female Haemaphysalis (85 percent) species were the highest followed by Amblyomma (79 percent), Hyalomma (74 percent) and Boophilus (73 percent) species. It is concluded that Hyalomma are the predominant species prevailing on dairy farms in the study area.