research article ectoparasites prevalence in small...

Research ArticleEctoparasites Prevalence in Small Ruminants in and aroundSekela Amhara Regional State Northwest Ethiopia

Zewdu Seyoum1 Tsegaye Tadesse2 and Agerie Addisu3

1Faculty of Veterinary Medicine University of Gondar PO Box 196 Gondar Ethiopia2Amhara National Regional State Bureau of Agriculture Sekela Ethiopia3College of Natural and Computational Sciences University of Gondar PO Box 196 Gondar Ethiopia

Correspondence should be addressed to Zewdu Seyoum zewdusyahoocom

Received 6 October 2014 Revised 6 March 2015 Accepted 20 March 2015

Academic Editor Nora Mestorino

Copyright copy 2015 Zewdu Seyoum et alThis is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution Licensewhich permits unrestricted use distribution and reproduction in any medium provided the original work is properly cited

This study was conducted to determine the prevalence and type of ectoparasites and to identify risk factors associated withectoparasite infestations in small ruminants in and around SekelaNorthwest Ethiopia Clinical examination and laboratory analysiswere made on 304 sheep and 96 goats The collected raw data were analyzed using 1205942-test Out of the 400 sampled animals 182(455) were infested with one ormore ectoparasitesThe prevalent ectoparasites observed were lice ticksCtenocephalides speciesMelophagus ovinus andDemodex speciesThe infestation rates of ectoparasites with age and sex were significantly varied (119875 lt 005)in sheep but not in goats (119875 gt 005) Body condition score was not significantly associated (119875 gt 005) with ectoparasites infestationin both sheep and goats In our attempt only two cases due toDemodex specieswere recorded in sheep In conclusion the prevalenceof ectoparasites in the present study was high and this could affect the wellbeing and productivity of small ruminants Thereforeto reduce ectoparasites prevalence and impact on the productivity and health status planning of integrated control measures withsustainable veterinary services aiming at creating awareness about the importance and control of ectoparasites for livestock ownersis required

1 Introduction

Ethiopia with its greatest variation in climate and topographypossesses one of the largest small ruminant populations in theworld which is kept extensively mostly by small holder farm-ers and adjacent to crop production [1 2] Small ruminantsrepresent an important segment of the Ethiopian livestocksystemThey are important sources of income for the agricul-tural communities and are one of the country major sourcesof foreign currency through skin and meat export and areamong important sources of animal protein providing 35ofmeat and 14 ofmilk consumptionThe national small rumi-nant population is estimated to be 63 million heads whichare raised in different agroecological regions of the country[2] However the contribution from this huge population tofood production and export income is far below the expectedpotential This would be due to the compound effects ofseveral factors among which is ectoparasitism [1 3]

Infestation by ectoparasites could lead to considerableeconomic losses to farmers due to loss of productivitymortality and skin diseases Ectoparasites including licesheep keds ticks fleas andmangemites are reported to causea wide range of health problems such as mechanical tissuedamage irritation inflammation hypersensitivity abscessesweight loss lameness anaemia and in severe cases death ofinfested animals with the consequent socioeconomic impli-cations [4ndash7] In addition ectoparasite infestations couldinduce great economic losses due to reduction ofwool qualitymeat and milk yield and losses as a result of culling andrelated with cost of treatment and prevention of the problemThey are also responsible for great preslaughter skin defectsresulting in downgrading and rejection of small ruminantskins [8 9] According to tanneries reports skin defects dueto ectoparasite effects cause 35of sheep and 56of goat skinrejections in Ethiopia [10]Moreover ectoparasites are knownto have zoonotic importance and be capable of transmitting

Hindawi Publishing CorporationJournal of Veterinary MedicineVolume 2015 Article ID 216085 6 pageshttpdxdoiorg1011552015216085

2 Journal of Veterinary Medicine

several types of disease pathogens from animals to animalsand from animals to human due to their blood sucking habit[7 9] All these established facts imply that ectoparasitescause serious economic losses to the farmer the tanningindustries and the country as a whole [8 9]

Despite these important consequences to animals andhuman beings the prevalence and magnitude of ectoparasiteinfestation in small ruminants have not been assessed in andaround Sekela Northwest Ethiopia Therefore informationon prevalence distribution and potential risk factors ofectoparasites of small ruminants is significant because theoutcome could be used tomake objective decisions on controlstrategies The finding would also help in formulating strate-gies tomeet the current shortfall of animal product created bythe rapidly increasing human population Hence the presentstudy was planned (1) to identify ectoparasites that parasitizesmall ruminants in and around Sekela area (2) to determinethe prevalence of ectoparasites infestation in relation to riskfactors such as species age sex and body condition scoreof study animals and (3) to recommend suitable preventiveand control strategies

2 Materials and Methods

21 Study Area Thepresent studywas conducted on ectopar-asites of small ruminants in and around Sekela NorthwestEthiopia from October 2013 to April 2014 Sekela is locatedbetween 10∘59251015840N latitude and 36∘55301015840E longitude in thenorthwest Ethiopia at 460 km from Addis Ababa Topo-graphically it has an elevation of 1500ndash3200masl Thearea mean annual rainfall is 1700mm and the mean annualtemperature is 18∘CThe farming system in the area is charac-terized as mixed crop-livestock production systemsThe live-stock in the study area is traditionally managed under exten-sive production system According to CSA [11] census resultthe study area has 73170 cattle 12264 equines 152545 smallruminants and 26725 chickens

22 Study Animals and Clinical Examination In our study atotal of 400 small ruminants (304 sheep and 96 goats) of dif-ferent age groups both sexes andof local breeds coming to theSekela district Veterinary Clinic for veterinary services wereexamined for the presence of lice fleas ticks mange mitesand skin lesions During sampling history species agesex and body condition of each animal were recorded Theanimals were grouped into two age categories as young (up toone year) and adult (older than one year) as described by [1213] Age determination was made using ownerrsquos informationand by dentition Body condition scores were determinedfollowing the procedures documented by Steele [12] andESGPIP [13] for sampled animals as poor medium and goodclasses following 1 up to 5 grading systemHowever our studywas conducted during dry season of the year and the bodycondition score of most of studied animals was very poorand the animals were emaciatedThus differentiating amongmedium and poor conditioned animals was difficult There-fore the authors of this paper preferred to assign the studiedanimals to poor and good body condition score groups Apoor body condition score was given for animals which were

extremely thin having prominent spinous and transverseprocesses into which a finger could be easily pushed and hadless depth of loin muscle A good body condition score wasgiven for animals when the spinous and transverse processeswere smooth rounded and well covered and with full loinmuscle [6 13]

Clinical inspection of each sampled animal was per-formed visually and by multiple fleece partings followed byphysical examination of skin inspection and palpation of theskin across all parts of the animal for the presence of parasitesand gross lesions indicating the clinical form of infestation byectoparasites Animals found with ectoparasites were consid-ered as positive

23 Ectoparasite Collection and Identification After properrestraining representative specimens were collected frominfested and diseased animals Ectoparasites (sheep kedsticks lice and fleas) either encountered on the skin surface orattached to the hair were collected manually from their sitesof attachment The ticks were removed from the host skinswhilst retaining their mouth parts for identification usingthumb forceps A coat brushing technique was applied tocollect lice from host skin Then the collected samples wereplaced in labelled universal bottles containing 70 ethanoland taken to the Parasitology Section Entomology Labora-tory of the Bahir Dar Regional Animal Health Diagnosticand Investigation Centre located in Bahir Dar town In thelaboratory the ectoparasites were identified with the basis oftheir morphological structure using the recommendations ofUrquhart et al [14] and Wall and Shearer [15] Further iden-tification at species level was conducted using a stereomicro-scope according to their key morphological structures usingWalker et al [16] suggestions for ticks and Urquhart et al [14]and Wall and Shearer [15] for lice and fleas

In addition skin scrapings formangemiteswere collectedfrom clinically suspected animals This was made by clippingthe hair around affected areas using scissors scraping theedges of the lesion with scalpel blades [14] until capillaryblood oozing was evident The scraped materials were trans-ferred to a container containing 10 formalin and weretaken for laboratory examination Then in the laboratory afew drops of 10 potassium hydroxide were added to thespecimen allowed to stand for 30 minutes and examinedunder a light microscope at 40x magnification [3 14] Themange mites were identified with the morphological keys ofUrquhart et al [14] and Wall and Shearer [15]

24 Data Management and Analysis A Microsoft Excelspread sheet was used for raw data management Statisticalsoftware SPSS version 17 was used for data analysis Descrip-tive statistics such as percentage were used to summarizethe proportions of infested and noninfested sampled animalsThe association with different risk factors (age sex bodycondition and species of animals) on the prevalence anddistribution of ectoparasites was analyzed using 1205942-test Thedifferences were considered as significant when 119875 lt 005 at95 confidence intervals

Journal of Veterinary Medicine 3

Table 1 Prevalence () of ectoparasites observed in small ruminants coming to Sekela Veterinary Clinic

Ectoparasites Sheep (119899 = 304) Goats (119899 = 96)Infected Prevalence () Infected Prevalence ()

LiceLinognathus ovillus 43 142 mdash mdashBovicola ovinus 27 89 mdash mdashLinognathus stenopsis mdash mdash 17 177

TickRhipicephalus evertisi 38 125 6 63Boophilus decoloratus 19 63 4 42Amblyomma variegatum 7 23 1 104Hyalomma marginatum 5 16 mdash mdash

Melophagus ovinus 28 92 12 125Ctenocephalides species 32 105 17 177Demodex species 2 066 mdash mdashOverall prevalence 145 477 37 385

Table 2 Prevalence () of ectoparasites in sheep (119899 = 304) with sex age and body condition

EctoparasitesSex

119875 valueAge

119875 valueBody condition

119875 valueMale(119899 = 87)

Female(119899 = 217)

Young(119899 = 26)

Adult(119899 = 278)

Poor(119899 = 253)

Good(119899 = 51)

Lice 13 (149) 57 (263) 0034 7 (269) 63 (227) gt005 63 (245) 7 (137) gt005Tick 29 (333) 40 (184) lt001 15 (577) 54 (194) lt0001 62 (245) 7 (137) gt005Demodex spp 1 (11) 1 (05) gt005 1 (38) 1 (04) gt005 2 (08) 0 (00) gt005Ctenocephalides spp 12 (138) 20 (92) gt005 3 (115) 29 (104) gt005 32 (126) 0 (00) lt001Melophagus ovinus 13 (149) 15 (69) 0029 9 (346) 19 (68) lt0001 28 (111) 0 (00) lt001Overall prevalence 56 (644) 89 (41) lt0001 18 (692) 127 (457) 0022 122 (482) 23 (451) gt005

3 Results

31 Overall Prevalence of Ectoparasites The overall preva-lence of ectoparasites (455) was recorded on examinedanimals From 304 sheep and 96 goats examined for ectopar-asites 145 (477) sheep and 37 (385) goats were foundto be infested with one or more ectoparasites Tick infes-tation (227) Linognathus ovillus (142) Ctenocephalidesspp (1052) Melophagus ovinus (92) Bovicola ovinus(89) and Demodex spp (066) were the identifiedectoparasites in sheep Similarly the identified ectoparasiteson goats include Ctenocephalides spp (177) Linognathusstenopsis (177) Melophagus ovinus (125) and tick infes-tation (115) The tick species identified in sheep wereRhipicephalus evertisi (125) Boophilus decoloratus (63)Amblyomma variegatum (23) andHyalommamarginatum(16) while in goats R evertisi (63) B decoloratus (42)and A variegatum (104) were identified (Table 1)

32 Species-Wise Prevalence of Ectoparasites The overallprevalence of ectoparasite infestation in sheep (477) andgoats (385) was not significantly varied (1205942 = 2466 and119875 = 0116) However the prevalence of tick infestation insheep (227) was significantly more prevalent than in goats(1145) (1205942 = 576 and 119875 = 0016) Statistically significantdifferences were never recorded (119875 gt 005) in the prevalence

of lice Ctenocephalides species andM ovinus between sheepand goats In our study only two cases (066) due toDemodex species were identified in sheep but no demodecticcases were recorded in goats (Figure 1)

33 Sex Age and Body Condition Score-Wise Prevalence ofEctoparasites As indicated in Table 2 from factors consid-ered sex and age in sheep population were found to be riskfactors for infestation with ectoparasites Higher ectoparasiteprevalence (1205942 = 13577 and119875 = 0000) was observed inmalesheep (644) than female sheep (41)Theprevalence of licein female sheep (263) was significantly (1205942 = 4494 and119875 = 0034) higher than in males (149) while the prevalenceofM ovinus and ticks infestation was significantly (119875 lt 005)higher in male sheep than females Similarly young group ofsheep appeared to bemore frequently infested withM ovinusand ticks (119875 lt 005) than adult group of sheep Moreoverthe rate of infestations of sheep with Ctenocephalides sppand M ovinus was significantly higher in poor than in goodbody condition score sheep (119875 lt 005) (Table 2) Howeverthe prevalence of Ctenocephalides spp was not significantly(gt005) varied among sex and age groups of sheep Similarlylice infestation was not significantly associated with age andbody condition score of sheep Moreover tick infestationprevalence was never associated with body condition score ofsheep


Table 3 Prevalence () of ectoparasites in goats (119899 = 96) with sex age and body condition

EctoparasitesSex

119875 valueAge


119875 valueMale(119899 = 33)

Female(119899 = 63)

Young(119899 = 24)

Adult(119899 = 72)

Poor(119899 = 67)

Good(119899 = 29)

Lice 4 (121) 13 (206) gt005 3 (125) 14 (194) gt005 10 (149) 7 (241) gt005Tick 5 (152) 6 (95) gt005 2 (83) 9 (125) gt005 9 (134) 2 (69) gt005Demodex spp mdash mdash mdash mdash mdash mdash mdash mdash mdashCtenocephalides spp 6 (182) 11 (175) gt005 11 (458) 6 (83) lt0001 17 (254) 0 (00) lt0001Melophagus ovinus 4 (121) 8 (127) gt005 7 (292) 5 (69) lt001 12 (179) 0 (00) 0016Overall prevalence 16 (485) 21 (333) gt005 9 (375) 28 (389) gt005 28 (418) 9 (31) gt005

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

Lice

Tick

Dem

odex

sp

Cten

ocep

halid

es sp

M o

vinu

s

Tota

l

SheepGoat

2302

177

227

115

066

105

177

92

125

477

385

Ectoparasites identified

Prev

alen

ce (

)

Figure 1 Species-wise prevalence of ectoparasites in sheep andgoats

In goats the overall prevalence of ectoparasite infestationwas not associated with the factors that are deemed to berisk factors However Ctenocephalides spp and M ovinusinfestation was significantly (119875 lt 005) prevalent in younggoats than adults and in poor body condition score goatsthan good condition score goats (Table 3) Other recordedectoparasite infestation with lice and tick did not show anyassociation with the considered factors (age sex and bodycondition score)

4 Discussion

In the present attempt we determined the prevalence ofectoparasite infestation in small ruminants brought to SekelaVeterinary Clinic using clinical examination It is thereforenoted that the prevalence of ectoparasites estimates providedhere may have some limitations as samples from clinical casemay not always represent the reference population whereanimals are drawn This is because animals brought forclinical services are those that are often clinically diseased orstressed ones So there is a possibility thatmore positive casesare observed resulting in overestimating the actual ectopar-asite burden In spite of these limitations clinical surveydata may be used to estimate the ectoparasite burden becauseof easy feasibility of conducting clinical surveys compared

to field surveys based on random study designs In additionclinical survey data may provide opportunities for designingintervention strategies by timely diagnosis and treating ani-mals infested with ectoparasites that influence the quality ofskin and productivity of infested animals

The overall prevalence of ectoparasite infestation in thepresent study was found to be 455 This suggested thegreat importance of ectoparasites in small ruminants of thestudy area This finding is in line with previous reports fromEthiopia [3 17] and elsewhere in the world [18 19] Similarlyour finding coincides with the reports on Yacob et al [20]Mulugeta et al [21] and Tesfaye et al [22]These higher infes-tation rates might be attributed to various important factorsincluding favourable climatic factors malnutrition especiallyduring long dry season poor husbandry system poor aware-ness of farmers to the effects of ectoparasites and inadequateanimal health services in the study area [3 19 23]

In this attempt the overall infestation rate of ectoparasiteswas not significantly varied among sheep and goats Thisfinding suggested that sheep and goats are equally susceptibleto the identified ectoparasites This contradicts with thefindings of Yacob et al [20] Fentahun et al [24] and Tesfayeet al [22] in Ethiopia Similarly Edoga [25] also reported hostdifferences in susceptibility to ectoparasites in Nigeria

The overall prevalence of lice infestation in sheep andgoats was found to be 2302 and 177 respectively Licehave been considered as one of the responsible parasites forskin rejection at tanneries in Ethiopia [8 9 21] due to a skindefect as a result of itching leading to scratching and rubbingdue to feeding behaviour of lice Moreover lice infestationcould be responsible for production loss irritation anddisease transmission [15] The lice infestation rate observedin this study is by far higher than previous observations fromdifferent parts of Ethiopia by Haffize [26] Beyecha et al [6]and Tesfaye et al [22] In contrast Sertse and Wossene [17]Wall and Shearer [15] and Kumsa et al [3] observed higherprevalence of lice infestation in sheep and goatsThis discrep-ancy might be attributed to differences in agroclimate thatfavour the biology of lice population density study methodand period the husbandry system and health services in thestudy area The occurrence of lice infestation could indicatesome other basic concerns such as malnutrition and chronicdiseases [14 15 21] Pugh [27] also stated lice infestation couldbe higher in emaciated animals that suffer frommalnutritionand parasitic diseases


The overall prevalence of tick infestation was higher inyoung sheep than in adult animals This is consistent withthe reports on Urquhart et al [14] that reported higher tickinfestation rates for young and poor body condition thanadults and good body condition animals This may be as aresult of incapability of young and debilitating or emaciatedanimals to groom and leak themselves and presence of weakdefence mechanism in these groups of animals [14] Lowertick infestation prevalence in this study was observed insheep and goats in comparison with Abunna et al [28] whoreported higher prevalence in sheep (875) and goat (899)in Miesso district Ethiopia This could be due to an ectopar-asite control campaign that has been practiced for ectopara-sites control for three consecutive years from 2008 to 2010 inAmhara Regional State Ethiopia Moreover this may beallied with variations in climatic factors and geographicallocations Climatic factors (environmental temperature andrelative humidity) are considered the major ecological struc-ture for the reproduction and growth of tick populations [29]

Ctenocephalides species were the third commonly exam-ined ectoparasite next to lice and tick in small ruminantsin the present study There were significant variations in theprevalence of flea infestation with age and body condition ofboth sheep and goats This observation coincides with pre-vious reports of Yacob et al [20] Mulugeta et al [21] Bekeleet al [30] Beyecha et al [6] andTesfaye et al [22] in EthiopiaBut no significant association was encountered with preva-lence of fleas and sex of study animals in the present obser-vation This agrees with the reports on Yacob et al [20] andFentahun et al [24] from Ethiopia

Infestation withM Ovinus leads to irritation that resultsin skin and fleece damage from animal biting and rubbingand staining of wool by faeces of the ked [10] Melophagusovinus was the other widely observed ectoparasite in sheep(92) and goats (125) in our study This observation iscomparable with the report on Kassaye and Kebede [31]However the present result disagrees with the reports onMulugeta et al [21] and Fentahun et al [24] which showed191 and 201 infestation rates of M ovinus elsewhere inEthiopia respectively This might be due to differences inenvironmental factors of the study sites and study periodAccording to Pugh [27] M ovinus is highly populated orattains peak level during the wet season but the present studywas conducted in the long dry seasonwhichwould contributeto a lower rate of observation Analysis of seasonal densitiesof sheep ked by Legg et al [32] also indicated that sheepked populations are mainly seen in colder wetter areas andthe infestation may be lost when the sheep are moved to hotand dry areas According to Radostatits et al [33] in the hot-humid tropics the parasite is restricted to cooler highlandsand infestations may be lost when sheep are moved to hotdry areas

In conclusion the present study identifies lice ticksCtenocephalides species andM ovinus to be the major ecto-parasites of small ruminants These ectoparasites have beenidentified as the major causes of sheep and goat productionconstraints and quality deteriorations of skin in EthiopiaTherefore the growing threat from ectoparasites on over-all sheep and goatsrsquo productivity and tanning industry in

Ethiopia warrants urgent control intervention Hence tomanage the effects of ectoparasites in small ruminant popu-lations it would be valuable to implement effective extensionsystem and programs that could lift up community awarenessonmanagement of animals effect of ectoparasites and practi-cable strategic control measures (restriction of animal move-ment fromendemic areas and chemical applications)with fullcooperation of farmers and responsible bodies in the area

Conflict of Interests

The authors have no conflict of interests regarding thepublication of this paper

Acknowledgments

The authors would like to say thanks to all farmers whoallowed their animals to be used for this study They alsothank the University of Gondar for financial support More-over the authors say thanks to the BahirDar Regional AnimalHealth Diagnostic Centre for logistic support

References

[1] B Kassa ldquoPre-slaughter defects of hidesskin and interventionoptions in east Africa harnessing the leather industry to ben-efits the poorrdquo in Proceedings of the Regional Workshop AddisAbaba Ethiopia April 2005

[2] MOA (Ministry of Agriculture) Annual Report on LivestockProduction MOA Addis Ababa Ethiopia 2010

[3] B Kumsa K Beyecha and M Geloye ldquoEctoparasites of sheepin three agro-ecological zones in central Oromia EthiopiardquoOnderstepoort Journal of Veterinary Research vol 79 no 1 pp1ndash7 2012

[4] N Nyangiwe and I G Horak ldquoGoats as alternative hosts of cat-tle ticksrdquo Onderstepoort Journal of Veterinary Research vol 74no 1 pp 1ndash7 2007

[5] C DeMatos C Sitoe L Neves J O Nothling and I G HorakldquoThe comparative prevalence of five ixodid tick species infestingcattle and goats in Maputo Province Mozambiquerdquo Onder-stepoort Journal of Veterinary Research vol 76 no 2 pp 201ndash208 2009

[6] K Beyecha B Kumsa and D Beyene ldquoEctoparasites of goats inthree agroecologies in central Oromia Ethiopiardquo ComparativeClinical Pathology vol 23 no 1 pp 21ndash28 2014

[7] R A Ofukwu C I Ogbaje and C A Akwuobu ldquoPreliminarystudy of the epidemiology of ectoparasite infestation of goatsand sheep inMakurdi north central Nigeriardquo Sokotto Journal ofVeterinary Science vol 7 no 3 pp 23ndash27 2008

[8] C Mersha ldquoEffect of small ruminant ectoparasites in the tan-ning industry in Ethiopia a reviewrdquo Journal of Animal Scienceand Advances vol 3 no 9 pp 424ndash443 2013

[9] H T Yacob ldquoEctoparasitism threat to Ethiopian small rumi-nant population and tanning industry a reviewrdquo Journal of Vet-erinary Medicine and Animal Health vol 6 no 1 pp 25ndash332014

[10] B Kassa ldquoCockle mange and pox major threats to the leatherindustry in Ethiopiardquo in Ethiopian Leather Industry PrevalenceTowards Value Addition Proceedings of the National WorkshopDecember 14-15 2006 Addis Abeba Ethiopia pp 71ndash92 2006


[11] Central Statistical Authority (CSA) ldquoFederal democraticRepublic of Ethiopia central statistical investigatory statisticalabstractrdquo 2012

[12] M SteeleGoatsTheTropical Agriculturalist SeriesMacmillanLondon UK CTA Education Wageningen The Netherlands1996

[13] Ethiopian Sheep andGoats Productivity Improvement Program(ESGPIP) ldquoCommondefects of sheep and goats skin inEthiopiaand their causesrdquo Technical Bulletin no 19 2009

[14] G M Urquhart J Armour A M Duncan and F W JenningsVeterinary Parasitology Blackwell Science Glasgow Scotland4th edition 1996

[15] R Wall and D Shearer Veterinary External Parasites BiologyPathology and Control Blackwell Science LTD 2nd edition2001

[16] A R Walker A Bouattour A Estrado-Pena et al Ticks ofDomestic Animals in Africa a Guide to Identification of SpeciesICTTD 2003

[17] T Sertse and A Wossene ldquoA study on ectoparasites of sheepand goats in eastern part of Amhara region northeast EthiopiardquoSmall Ruminant Research vol 69 no 1ndash3 pp 62ndash67 2007

[18] M Yakhchali and A Hosseine ldquoPrevalence and ectoparasitesfauna of sheep and goats flocks in Urmia suburb Iranrdquo Veteri-narski Arhiv vol 76 no 5 pp 431ndash442 2006

[19] M Sarkar S A Rahman B K Sarker A N Anisuzzaman NBegum and M M H Mondal ldquoEpidemiology and pathologyof ectoparasitic infestations in black Bengal goats in Gaibandhaand mymensingh districts of Bangladeshrdquo Bangladesh Journalof Veterinary Medicine vol 8 no 1 pp 41ndash50 2011

[20] H T Yacob T A Yalew and A A Dinka ldquoPart I ectoparasiteprevalences in sheep and in goats in and aroundWolaita soddoSouthern Ethiopiardquo Revue de Medecine Veterinaire vol 159 no8-9 pp 450ndash454 2008

[21] Y Mulugeta H T Yacob and H Ashenafi ldquoEctoparasites ofsmall ruminants in three selected agro-ecological sites of TigrayRegion Ethiopiardquo Tropical Animal Health and Production vol42 no 6 pp 1219ndash1224 2010

[22] D Tesfaye M Assefa T Demissie and M Taye ldquoEctoparasitesof small ruminants presented at Bahir Dar Veterinary ClinicNorthwest Ethiopiardquo African Journal of Agricultural Researchvol 7 no 33 pp 4669ndash4674 2012

[23] S Mekonnen R G Pegram S Gebre A Mekonnen Y Jobreand M Zewde ldquoA synthesis of ixodid (Acari Ixodidae) andargasidae (Acari Argasidae) tick in Ethiopia and their possibleroles in disease transmissionrdquo Ethiopian Veterinary Journal vol11 pp 1ndash7 2007

[24] T Fentahun W Fasil C Mersha and B Malede ldquoPrevalence ofectoparasites on small ruminants in and aroundGondar TownrdquoThe American-Eurasian Journal of Sciences and Research vol 7no 3 pp 6ndash111 2012

[25] E O Edoga ldquoBreed susceptibility to ectoparasite infestations insmall ruminants managed under semi-intensive systemrdquo Jour-nal of Animal Production 2005

[26] M Haffize Study on skin disease of small ruminants in centralEthiopia [DVM thesis] Faculty of Veterinary Medicine AddisAbaba University Addis Ababa Ethiopia 2001

[27] D H Pugh Sheep and Goats Medicine WB Saunders Philadel-phia Pa USA 1st edition 2002

[28] F AbunnaD Kasasa B Shelima BMegersa A Regassa andKAmenu ldquoSurvey of tick infestation in small ruminants ofMessiso district West Harrargie Oromia region Ethiopiardquo

Tropical Animal Health and Production vol 41 no 6 pp 969ndash972 2009

[29] A A Latif and A R Walker An Introduction to the Biology andControl of Ticks in Africa ICTTD-2 Project 2004

[30] J Bekele M Tariku and R Abebe ldquoExternal parasite infesta-tions in small ruminants inWolmera district ofOromiya regioncentral Ethiopiardquo Journal of Animal and Veterinary Advancesvol 10 no 4 pp 518ndash523 2011

[31] E Kassaye and E Kebede ldquoEpidemiological study on mangemite lice and sheep keds of small ruminants in Tigray regionnorthern EthiopiardquoGlobal Veterinarian vol 14 no 2 pp 51ndash652010

[32] D E Legg R Kumar D W Watson and J E Lloyd ldquoSeasonalmovement and spatial distribution of the sheep ked (DipteraHippoboscidae) onWyoming lambsrdquo Journal of Economic Ento-mology vol 84 no 5 pp 1532ndash1539 1991

[33] O M Radostatits K Gray W Hinchcliff and P Constable ATextbook of the Disease of Cattle Sheep Goats Pigs and HorsesWB Saunders Edinburgh UK 10th edition 2007

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several types of disease pathogens from animals to animalsand from animals to human due to their blood sucking habit[7 9] All these established facts imply that ectoparasitescause serious economic losses to the farmer the tanningindustries and the country as a whole [8 9]

Despite these important consequences to animals andhuman beings the prevalence and magnitude of ectoparasiteinfestation in small ruminants have not been assessed in andaround Sekela Northwest Ethiopia Therefore informationon prevalence distribution and potential risk factors ofectoparasites of small ruminants is significant because theoutcome could be used tomake objective decisions on controlstrategies The finding would also help in formulating strate-gies tomeet the current shortfall of animal product created bythe rapidly increasing human population Hence the presentstudy was planned (1) to identify ectoparasites that parasitizesmall ruminants in and around Sekela area (2) to determinethe prevalence of ectoparasites infestation in relation to riskfactors such as species age sex and body condition scoreof study animals and (3) to recommend suitable preventiveand control strategies

2 Materials and Methods

21 Study Area Thepresent studywas conducted on ectopar-asites of small ruminants in and around Sekela NorthwestEthiopia from October 2013 to April 2014 Sekela is locatedbetween 10∘59251015840N latitude and 36∘55301015840E longitude in thenorthwest Ethiopia at 460 km from Addis Ababa Topo-graphically it has an elevation of 1500ndash3200masl Thearea mean annual rainfall is 1700mm and the mean annualtemperature is 18∘CThe farming system in the area is charac-terized as mixed crop-livestock production systemsThe live-stock in the study area is traditionally managed under exten-sive production system According to CSA [11] census resultthe study area has 73170 cattle 12264 equines 152545 smallruminants and 26725 chickens

22 Study Animals and Clinical Examination In our study atotal of 400 small ruminants (304 sheep and 96 goats) of dif-ferent age groups both sexes andof local breeds coming to theSekela district Veterinary Clinic for veterinary services wereexamined for the presence of lice fleas ticks mange mitesand skin lesions During sampling history species agesex and body condition of each animal were recorded Theanimals were grouped into two age categories as young (up toone year) and adult (older than one year) as described by [1213] Age determination was made using ownerrsquos informationand by dentition Body condition scores were determinedfollowing the procedures documented by Steele [12] andESGPIP [13] for sampled animals as poor medium and goodclasses following 1 up to 5 grading systemHowever our studywas conducted during dry season of the year and the bodycondition score of most of studied animals was very poorand the animals were emaciatedThus differentiating amongmedium and poor conditioned animals was difficult There-fore the authors of this paper preferred to assign the studiedanimals to poor and good body condition score groups Apoor body condition score was given for animals which were

extremely thin having prominent spinous and transverseprocesses into which a finger could be easily pushed and hadless depth of loin muscle A good body condition score wasgiven for animals when the spinous and transverse processeswere smooth rounded and well covered and with full loinmuscle [6 13]

Clinical inspection of each sampled animal was per-formed visually and by multiple fleece partings followed byphysical examination of skin inspection and palpation of theskin across all parts of the animal for the presence of parasitesand gross lesions indicating the clinical form of infestation byectoparasites Animals found with ectoparasites were consid-ered as positive

23 Ectoparasite Collection and Identification After properrestraining representative specimens were collected frominfested and diseased animals Ectoparasites (sheep kedsticks lice and fleas) either encountered on the skin surface orattached to the hair were collected manually from their sitesof attachment The ticks were removed from the host skinswhilst retaining their mouth parts for identification usingthumb forceps A coat brushing technique was applied tocollect lice from host skin Then the collected samples wereplaced in labelled universal bottles containing 70 ethanoland taken to the Parasitology Section Entomology Labora-tory of the Bahir Dar Regional Animal Health Diagnosticand Investigation Centre located in Bahir Dar town In thelaboratory the ectoparasites were identified with the basis oftheir morphological structure using the recommendations ofUrquhart et al [14] and Wall and Shearer [15] Further iden-tification at species level was conducted using a stereomicro-scope according to their key morphological structures usingWalker et al [16] suggestions for ticks and Urquhart et al [14]and Wall and Shearer [15] for lice and fleas

In addition skin scrapings formangemiteswere collectedfrom clinically suspected animals This was made by clippingthe hair around affected areas using scissors scraping theedges of the lesion with scalpel blades [14] until capillaryblood oozing was evident The scraped materials were trans-ferred to a container containing 10 formalin and weretaken for laboratory examination Then in the laboratory afew drops of 10 potassium hydroxide were added to thespecimen allowed to stand for 30 minutes and examinedunder a light microscope at 40x magnification [3 14] Themange mites were identified with the morphological keys ofUrquhart et al [14] and Wall and Shearer [15]

24 Data Management and Analysis A Microsoft Excelspread sheet was used for raw data management Statisticalsoftware SPSS version 17 was used for data analysis Descrip-tive statistics such as percentage were used to summarizethe proportions of infested and noninfested sampled animalsThe association with different risk factors (age sex bodycondition and species of animals) on the prevalence anddistribution of ectoparasites was analyzed using 1205942-test Thedifferences were considered as significant when 119875 lt 005 at95 confidence intervals








EctoparasitesSex

119875 valueAge


119875 valueMale(119899 = 87)

Female(119899 = 217)

Young(119899 = 26)

Adult(119899 = 278)

Poor(119899 = 253)

Good(119899 = 51)


3 Results







EctoparasitesSex

119875 valueAge


119875 valueMale(119899 = 33)

Female(119899 = 63)

Young(119899 = 24)

Adult(119899 = 72)

Poor(119899 = 67)

Good(119899 = 29)


0

10

20

30

40

50

60

Lice

Tick

Dem

odex

sp

Cten

ocep

halid

es sp

M o

vinu

s

Tota

l

SheepGoat

2302

177

227

115

066

105

177

92

125

477

385


Prev

alen

ce (

)



4 Discussion














Acknowledgments


References











































Microbiology


AnimalsJournal of








Volume 2014



Agronomy







Volume 2014

Zoology



InsectsJournal of




VirusesJournal of













EctoparasitesSex

119875 valueAge


119875 valueMale(119899 = 87)

Female(119899 = 217)

Young(119899 = 26)

Adult(119899 = 278)

Poor(119899 = 253)

Good(119899 = 51)


3 Results







EctoparasitesSex

119875 valueAge


119875 valueMale(119899 = 33)

Female(119899 = 63)

Young(119899 = 24)

Adult(119899 = 72)

Poor(119899 = 67)

Good(119899 = 29)


0

10

20

30

40

50

60

Lice

Tick

Dem

odex

sp

Cten

ocep

halid

es sp

M o

vinu

s

Tota

l

SheepGoat

2302

177

227

115

066

105

177

92

125

477

385


Prev

alen

ce (

)



4 Discussion














Acknowledgments


References











































Microbiology


AnimalsJournal of








Volume 2014



Agronomy







Volume 2014

Zoology



InsectsJournal of




VirusesJournal of








EctoparasitesSex

119875 valueAge


119875 valueMale(119899 = 33)

Female(119899 = 63)

Young(119899 = 24)

Adult(119899 = 72)

Poor(119899 = 67)

Good(119899 = 29)


0

10

20

30

40

50

60

Lice

Tick

Dem

odex

sp

Cten

ocep

halid

es sp

M o

vinu

s

Tota

l

SheepGoat

2302

177

227

115

066

105

177

92

125

477

385


Prev

alen

ce (

)



4 Discussion














Acknowledgments


References











































Microbiology


AnimalsJournal of








Volume 2014



Agronomy







Volume 2014

Zoology



InsectsJournal of




VirusesJournal of














Acknowledgments


References











































Microbiology


AnimalsJournal of








Volume 2014



Agronomy







Volume 2014

Zoology



InsectsJournal of




VirusesJournal of






































Microbiology


AnimalsJournal of








Volume 2014



Agronomy







Volume 2014

Zoology



InsectsJournal of




VirusesJournal of






research article ectoparasites prevalence in small...

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