Prevalence of ixodid ticks infesting cattle in Nagpur district of Maharashtra state

Abstract

Tick and tick-borne diseases affects the health status of animals and ultimately lead to economic losses. The present study was conducted to determine the most prevalent tick species infesting cattle and to assess the season wise prevalence of ixodid ticks in Nagpur district of Maharashtra state. To study the prevalence of ticks in cattle, a total of 708 animals were examined from five talukas of Nagpur district of which 466 animals were found to be infested with ticks showing an overall prevalence of 65.81%. In season-wise prevalence the highest prevalence of ixodid ticks was found in post monsoon season (75.46%), followed by monsoon season (72.83%), summer season (62.24%) and lowest in winter season (55.08%). For species wise prevalence, a total of 3498 ticks were collected from the body of animals of which 2034 ticks were of Rhipicephalus spp. with a percent infestation of 58.15% and 1464 ticks were of Hyalomma spp. with percent infestation of 41.85%. Rhipicephalus spp. was the most prevalent tick species infesting cattle in Nagpur district of Maharashtra state. The high prevalence of ixodid ticks throughout the year indicates that the tropical climatic conditions in Nagpur district of Maharashtra favour the growth and survivability of ticks.