Cattle Tick Prevalence and Species Identification in Tarcha Zuriya District, Dawro Zone, Southwest Ethiopia

Ticks are widely distributed in different agroecology of Ethiopia. They decrease the productivity of cattle and transmit different diseases from sick to healthy animal. A cross sectional study was conducted from December 2023 to June 2024 to estimate prevalence, identifying tick species and evaluate tick resistance to acaricides in Tarcha Zuriya district, Dawro Zone, Southwest Ethiopia. The study was carried out on randomly selected 384 cattle, comprising 324 local and 60 cross breeds (Local X Friesian). Ticks were identified at species level using stereomicroscope (10X magnification). Prevalence was 79.95% (n=307/384). Of the total 1538 ticks collected, 60.8% was Amblyomma, 33.1% Rh (Boophillus), and 6.1% Rhipicephalus. Under these genera, 47.53% A. variegatum, 33.1% Rh (Boophillus) decoloratus, 9.62%  A. cohaerens, 5.33% Rh. evertsi evertsi, 3.64% A.gemma and 0.78% Rh. pulchellus.  High number of this study animals were infested by A. variegatum (31.25%) followed by B.decoloratus (21.35%), A.cohaerens (5.99%), Rh. evertsi evertsi (3.65%), A. gemma (2.87%) and Rh. pulchellus (0.52%). In the male to female ratio, more number of males were recorded in all species of ticks. In this study udder, scrotum and belly were found to be more favorable site of attachment whereas, head and ear were least favorable sites. Body condition of cattles was significantly (p<0.05) associated with the prevalence of tick. Poor conditioned animal (40.1%, n=154/384), than medium (39.1%, 150/384) and good (0.8%, 3/384). However, association of age and sex was not significant (p=0.537, p=0.702, respectively). There was high prevalence of ticks in the study area.