Study on monthly dynamics of ticks and seroprevalence of Anaplasma marginale, Babesia bigemina and Theileria mutans in four indigenous breeds of cattle in Ghibe valley, Ethiopia

Abstract

Monthly collection of ticks in the period January through October, 2002 was conducted in the Ghibe Valley of Ethiopia from randomly selected cohort of 60 heifers belonging to four indigenous cattle breeds namely Abigar, Sheko, Horro and Guraghe. The most abundant tick species were Amblyomma variegatum (39.5%), Boophilus decoloratus (39.1 %), A. cohaerens (10.5%) and Rhipicephalus evertsi evertsi (6.7%). 'Species of least abundance include R. praetextatus, Haemaphysalis aciculifer, Hyalomma marginatum rufipes, R. bergeoni, R. lunulatus, R. muhsame and R. pravus, altogether comprising 4.2% of the overall tick species. The monthly abundance of adult ticks, their feeding sites on the hosts and the male to female sex ratio were determined. The seroprevalence of Anaplasma marginale, Babesia bigemina and Theileria mutans was studied using indirect Enzyme Linked lmmunosorbant Assay (indirect ELISA) using blood samples collected in April, June, August and October 2002. The period prevalence of antibodies of A. marginale, B. bigemina and T. mutans was found to be 84.2, 87.1 and 54.2 per cent, respectively. There was no significant difference in the prevalence of the diseases among the breeds, except the higher prevalence of A. marginale in Horro (P < 0.05). The overall high seroprevalence values suggest the presence of enzootic stability in the cattle population in the area for A. marginale and B. bigemina infections while the relatively low seroprevalence of T. mutans indicated the state of enzootic instability in the population. The implications of these findings on the health of the cattle and hence the economic impact is discussed.