A Study on prevalence, identification and status of Ixodid (Hard) Ticks Infestation in cattle in and around Honkola Wabe District

Ticks are one of the best known groups of ecto parasites, which affect the cattle production and productivity either by transmitting different tick borne disease or by affecting health of cattle and as well as the quality of hides. Cross-sectional study design was implemented with the objective to estimate the prevalence of tick infestation and to identify the type tick of cattle in and around Honkola-Wabe woreda of Arsi zone of Oromia regional state, from January 2021 to August 2021. 400 cattle (local and cross breed) were selected using simple random sampling from four randomly selected kebeles; and examined for tick infestation and adult tick were collected for tick identification. From these 292(73%) of the animals were infested with different tick species and 108 (27%) of them were free of tick infestation. The highest number of cattle was infested with Amblyomma 160 (40%) followed by Boophilus 71(18%), Rhipicephalus 48 (12%) and Hyalomma 12(3%). There were significant statistically difference between tick infestation prevalence among different factors like breed, age, and sex and body conditions scored. For example, the prevalence rate of tick infested cattle were higher in cross breeds (79.4%) than in local breeds (69.5 %) (χ2=4.57; p=0.033). The result of the current study fills the information gap on prevalence of tick infected cattle of different breeds found in Honkola Wabe area. Tick, therefore, can lead to highly damage the national economic. Thus, in order to provide effective control of tick infestation systematic intervention approach could be implemented that will reduced chance of tick infestation of cattle and thereby improve cattle production.