PREVALENCE OF TICK INFESTATION IN GOATS UNDER DIFFERENT SYSTEM OF MANAGEMENT

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2 Int. J. Agric.Sc & Vet.Med Soundararajan C et al., 2014 Research Paper ISSN Vol. 2, No. 3, August All Rights Reserved PREVALENCE OF TICK INFESTATION IN GOATS UNDER DIFFERENT SYSTEM OF MANAGEMENT Soundararajan C 1*, Latha B R 1 and Serma Saravana Pandian 2 *Corresponding Author: Soundararajan C, soundarvet1970@yahoo.com The prevalence of tick infestation and their predilection sites was studied in goats (non-descript, Kanni and Boer x non-descript crossbred) under different system of management at Livestock Research Station, Kattupakkam, Tamil Nadu, India. The ticks were recovered only on the goats under semi-intensive system (100%) whereas the goats under intensive system were free from the tick infestation. The most abundant species found in this study were Haemaphysalis bispinosa (100%), Hyalomma marginatum isaaci (7.29%), Rhipicephalus haemaphysaloides (3.13%) and H.anatolicum anatolicum (2.08%). Among the infested goats, females were heavily infested (78.64%) than the males (51.52%). Among the age groups, the hogget animals were heavily infested (83.87%) followed by adults (71.43%). Among the breeds, non-descript goats were heavily infested (94.29%) followed by Kanni goats (90.91%) and Boer x non-descript cross breeds (51.56%). Ticks were located mostly on the ears (69.79%) than the other parts of the body (30.21%). Keywords: Goat, Intensive and semi intensive system, Survey, Ticks INTRODUCTION Ticks are very important and harmful blood sucking external parasites of mammals, birds and reptiles throughout the world (Furman and Loomis, 1984). Their deleterious effects include transmission of tick-borne diseases, tick worry, metabolic debilitation, tick toxicosis and secondary infections (Light-foot and Norval, 1981; and Hart, 1990). Incidence and prevalence of ixodid ticks on goats in South India were studied by Jagannath and Lokesh (1988), Saxena (1997) and Prakasan and Ramani (2007) and also on sheep of Tamil Nadu by Latha et al. (2004) and Vathsala et al. (2008). This paper deals with the prevalence and predilection site of the ticks in an organized farm in Tamil Nadu to derive control measures of ticks in goats under different system of management. 1 Department of Veterinary Parasitology, Madras Veterinary College, Tamil Nadu Veterinary and Animal Sciences University, Chennai , Tamil Nadu, India. 2 Department of Animal Husbandary Economics, Madras Veterinary College, Tamil Nadu Veterinary and Animal Sciences University, Chennai , Tamil Nadu, India. 4

3 MATERIALS AND METHODS Study Area The study was conducted in southern India, Kancheepuram district of Tamil Nadu state that is 70 km from the Chennai. Tamil Nadu state is located between 8 5 and N latitude and and E longitudes. The annual rainfall is mm and the mean annual temperature varies from 12 C to 45.5 C. Study Design A total of 132 goats at Livestock Research Station, Kattupakkam, Tamil Nadu, India were examined during the study period. All the animals were maintained under semi intensive (96 animals) and intensive system (36 animals). The animals were allowed for gazing daily for 8 hours with 50 gm/lambs/day, 100 gm/day/ hogget and 200 gm/day/adult. Animals under intensive system in addition to concentrate feed were fed with green 1 kg/day, 2-3 kg/ day and 4-5 kg/day to lambs, hogget and adult, respectively. The age group of the animals were grouped into lambs (0-3 months), Hogget (4-12months) and adults (above 12 months). The breeds maintained in this farm were Kanni, nondescript and Boer x non-descript. Kanni goat is a meat type goat of Tamil Nadu with peculiar colured coat of black with white stripes (Pal Kanni) or brown stripes (Chen Kanni) on fore head, ears, lower abdomen and on all the legs. Parasitological Technique The goats were examined from head to tail including legs for the presence of ticks on the body of the animals. All the tick stages were collected from the animals and transferred into collection tube containing either 70% alcohol or 10% formalin. The collected ticks were identified according to keys given by Shariff (1928), Kaiser and Hoogstraal (1964) and Trapido et al. (1964). Statstcal Analysis Data recorded included the age and sex of the animal, site of predilection, prevalence rate and tick intensity. Chi-square was used for comparison of binary variables. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION Prevalence The overall prevalence of ticks in goats was 72.73% (96/132) (Table 1). This is similar to that of previous work by Prakasan and Ramani (2007) in Kerala (74.73%), Vathsalaet al. (2008) in Tamil Nadu (97.66%), Abunna et al. (2009) Miesso district of Oromia state, Ethiopia (87.5%) and Abunna et al. (2012) in Bedelle district of Oromia state, Ethiopia (66.12%). Whereas Irshad et al. (2010) reported 41.53% in Pakistan, Yacob et al. (2008) reported 18.63% in Southern Ethiopia and Abdul Manan et al. (2007) reported in 12.1% in Pakistan. Haemaphysalis bispinosa (100%) was abundant followed by Hyalomma marginatum isaaci (7.29%), Rhipicephalus haemaphysaloides (3.13%), and H.anatolicum anatolicum (2.08%). Latha et al. (2004) and Prakasan and Ramani (2007) also reported that the H.bispinosa was the most common ticks in goats in Tamil Nadu and Kerala. System of Management The ticks were recovered only on the goats under semi-intensive system (100%) whereas the goats under intensive system were free from tick infestation (P < 0.01). Rabbi (2006) found the highest ectoparasitic infestation in semi-intensive system (59.7%) followed by extensive system (33.5%) and intensive system (8.27%). Rony 5

4 Table 1: Overall Prevalence of Tick Infestation in Goats Under System of Management Variables Category Number of Examined Animals Number of Infested Animals (%) Chi-Square Test ( 2 ) System of management Intensive system 36 0 (0.00) ** Semi intensive system (100) Overall (72.73) Sex Male (51.52) 8.27** Female (78.64) Age Kid 3 0 (0) 10.02** Hogget (83.87) Adult (71.43) Breed Non-descript (94.29) 28.15** Note: ** p < 0.01 highly sinificant. Kanni (90.91) Boer x Non-descript (51.56) et al. (2010) also observed higher prevalence of ticks in goats under free-range condition (83.57%) than those of semi-intensive (60.0%). This may be due to the restriction of movement of goats, regular hygienic management of pen and run of the shed, regular dipping with acaricides and good nutritional management with tree fodder, green grass and concentrate feeding to the goats which probably results in tick free goats in intensive system of management. Sex, Age and Breed of the Animals Of the infested animals,78.64% were females and 51.52% were males (P < 0.01). This results is similar to that of Mohammad Yakhchali and Ali Hosseine (2006) who also observed heaviest tick infestation on female (78.10%) than male (21.90%) animals. Among the age groups, hogget animals were heavily infested (83.87%) followed by adults (71.43%) (P < 0.01). This is similar to the report of Yakhchali and Ali Hosseine (2006). On the contrary, Abdul Manan et al. (2007) reported 13.9, 14.5 and 10.3% infestation rate in under-weaned (< 6 months), weaned sheep (6-12 months) and adults, respectively. Among the breeds, non-descript goats were heavily infested (94.29%) followed by Kanni goats (90.91%) and Boer x non-descript cross breeds (51.56%) (P < 0.01). It shows crossbred animals were less susceptible to the tick infestation than the native breeds. Predilection Sites In this study, ticks were found located mostly on the ears (69.76%) followed by ear and other parts viz., eye, axis, anus, tail and vulva (30.21%) (P< 0.01). Next to the ear, the ticks were more in ear and anus (7.29%) and ear and vulva (5.21( (Table 2). Irshad et al. (2010) also reported 78.5% of tick infestation in ear followed by the underside of the tail and the hind legs. This might be attributed to the fact that the attachment of tick is dependent on the temperature and the thickness of the skin of the animal (Feldman and Borut, 1983). The temperature of the skin covering the body was 6

5 Table 2: Region-Wise Prevalence of Tick Infestation in Goats Region Number Infested (%) Ear 67 (69.79) ** Ear and eye 9 (9.38) Ear, eye and axis 1 (1.04) Ear, eye, axis and vulva 1 (1.04) Ear and anus 7 (7.29) Ear, anus and vulva 2 (2.08) Ear, anus and tail 2 (2.08) Ear and tail 2 (2.08) Ear and vulva 5 (5.21) Note: ** p < 0.01 highly sinificant. Chi-Square Test ( 2 ) anatolicum anatolicum ticks were found only on vulva and anus, where as Vathsala et al. (2008) found the ticks in the inguinal region. Effect of Ticks on the Host More number of immature and mature stages of H. bispinosa ticks were found inside the ear canal and also on the outer surface of the ear causing irritation, shaking of head and ears and hairless patches. Hyalomma marginatum isaaci at anus and vulva caused oedema (Figure 1) and abscess formation at the site of bite and also caused severe bleeding when the tick was removed from the site of attachment (Figure 2), which is similar to that of Drummond (1983) who Table 3: Prevalence of Different Tick Infestation in Goats Tick Species Region Positive (%) Chi-Square Test ( 2 ) Haemaphysalis bispinosa Ear, eye and axis 96 (100) ** Rhipicephalus haemaphysaloides Anus, Tail and vulva 3 (3.13) Hyalomma marginatum isaaci Vulva, anus and Tail 7 (7.29) H. anatolicum anatolicum Vulva and anus 2 (2.08) Note: ** p < 0.01 highly sinificant. 35 C while that of the ear was 25 C (Sweatman 1970; and Tukahirwa, 1976). This could be a reason amongst others for the presence of almost 70% of ticks in the ear. has also reported blood loss due to the feeding of ticks. Figure 1: Oedema Caused by Ticks It was observed that H. bispinosa ticks were found mostly (100%) on the ears and also on eye lids and axis region (Table 3). (Dhanda and Bhat, 1968; Latha et al., 2004; and Vathsala et al., 2008). Rhipicephalus haemaphysaloides ticks were found (3.13%) only on anus, tail and vulva. Similar findings were reported by Vathsala et al. (2008), while Khan and Srivastav (1988) and Latha et al. (2004) found the ticks on the head and ears. Hyalomma marginatum isaaci ticks were collected mostly (7.29%) from vulva, anus and tail (Vathsala et al., 2008) and Hyalomma 7

6 Figure 2: Bleeding Caused by Ticks Region Peshawar, Journal of Agricultural and Biological Sciences, Vol. 2, pp Abunna F, Kasasa D, Shelima B, Megers B, Regassa A and Amenu K (2009), Survey of Tick Infestation in Small Ruminants of Miesso District, West Harergie, Oromia Region, Ethiopia, Tropical Animal Health and Prodction, Vol. 41, pp Abunna F, Tura J and Ragassa A (2012), Status of Tick Infestation in Small Ruminants of Bedelle District, Oromia Region, Ethiopia, Global Veterinaria, Vol. 8, pp Dhanda V and Bhat H R (1968), Haemohysalis Species Parasitizing Sheep and Goats in Garwarregion in India, Journal of Parasitology, Vol. 54, pp CONCLUSION Heavy localization of ticks were seen on ear and ano-genital region in goats. Hence, care should be taken while dipping the animal with acaricides. It is advisable to bestow special attention while dipping, to scrub the ear and ano-genital area so as to remove the ticks from those areas. The medicated water should also be sprayed inside the animals sheds (pen and run) to avoid reinfestation problems. Based on the study farmers were educated regarding target specific dipping method and substantial decrease in tick infestation was noticed. REFERENCES 1. Abdul Manan, Zabita Khan, Bashir Ahmad and Abdullah (2007), Prevalence and Distribution of Ixodid Tick Genera in Frontier 5. Drummond R O (1983), Tick Borne Livestock Diseases and their Vectors, Chemical Control of Ticks, Wld. Anim. Rev. (FAO), Vol. 36, pp Feldman B M and Borut S (1983), Some Observations on Two East Meditrranean Species of Haemophysalis Ticks Parasitizing Domestic Stock, Veterinary Parasitoloy, Vol. 13, pp Furman D P and Loomis E C (1984), Bulletin of the California Insect Survey, Vol. 25, pp , University of California Press, California. 8. Hart B L (1990), Behavioral Adaptation to Pathogens and Parasites, Neuroscience and Biobehavioural Review, Vol. 14, pp Irshad N M, Qayyum M Hussain and Khan M Q (2010), Prevalence of Tick Infestation and Theileriosis in Sheep and Goats, Pakistan Veterinary Journal, Vol. 30, pp

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