Identification of tick species and their preferred site on cattle's body in and around Mizan Teferi, Southwestern Ethiopia.

A cross-sectional study was conducted to identify tick species and their preferred sites on cattle’s body in and around Mizan Teferi, Southwestern Ethiopia. Three hundred seventy five cows were brought to Mizan Teferi Gacheb veterinary clinic during the study period from areas where mixed crop-livestock farming is the dominant production system. Out the total number of the animals brought to clinic, 272 animals which had ticks comprising three genera and five species were studied and a total number of 3,974 ticks were collected and identified. The genera recorded were Amblyomma and Rhipicephalus with relative infestation rate of 88.8, 53.3 and 12.3% respectively. Four tick species identified of the three genera wereAmbylyomma cohaerens, Amblyomma variegatum, Amblyomma gemma, andRhipicephalus evertsi. A. cohaerens were the most abundant tick species with a relative abundance of 62.4%. The average male to female sex ratio was 1.3:1, which could be explained by the reproductive behaviour of the female tick. The study also found that most infested body part of the cattle was udder-scrotum (32.4%) followed by anno-vulva (21.9%), perineum (18.77%), dewlap (16.7%) and brisket (3.1%). The infestation level of ticks had a statistical significance difference (P<0.05) between cattle of poor body condition and good body condition, which is higher in the later one. Hence, during hand spraying of cattle special, attention should be given to the udder-scrotum and other preferred sites of attachment. Appropriate tick control strategy and technique need to be applied to which the identified tick species are sensitive.   Key words: Cattle, predilection site, tick.