TITLE:
Ticks, Demographics, Vegetation Cover, and Farmer’s Age Influence Red Meat Production in Resource-Poor Regions of Eastern Cape Province of South Africa
AUTHORS:
Nkululeko Nyangiwe, Sindisile Goni, Thami Khethani, Tanki Thubela, Mlungisi Jansen, Siza Mthi, Mandla Yawa, Sive Tokozwayo, Unathi Gulwa, Ntanganedzeni O. Mapholi, Ishmael F. Jaja, Luxolo Qokweni, Yanga Mkabile Mkabile, Sindile Magoda, Zoleka Ntondini, Zamantungwa T. H. Khumalo
KEYWORDS:
Amblyomma, Constraints, Rangeland Conditions, Rhipicephalus (Boophilus) microplus, Tick Distribution, South Africa
JOURNAL NAME:
Open Journal of Animal Sciences,
Vol.11 No.4,
October
26,
2021
ABSTRACT: This study presents an integrated examination of livestock production
constraints associating with communal farming in six district municipalities
(DMs) of the Eastern Cape Province. We collected data on demographic and
socio-economic factors from 271 farmers randomly given questionnaires. About 26
Land Redistribution for Agricultural Development (LRAD) owned by communal
farmers were surveyed to ascertain the condition of grazing land, meanwhile,
tick species and distribution on cattle and goats found in 158 sampling sites
of the study area were also recorded. From the results, a total of 34,929 adult
ticks belonging to five genera and 10 species were encountered. The most
abundant tick genera were Rhipicephalus of the subgenus Boophilus (68.91%), Amblyomma (20.72%), Hyalomma (8.64%), Ixodes (1.22%), and Haemaphysalis (0.51%). By geographic
distributions, Amblyomma and Rhipicephalus were common to all DMs, while R. microplus and R. decoloratus were found in the drier
regions. From the map plotted
for 16 custom feeding centers, lack of marketing channels (23%), poor animal
conditions (20%), lack of infrastructure (19%), high price of medicine (14%),
shortage of feed (10%), stock theft (8%), and age of animals (too old) to be
marketed (6%) are the major shortcomings in red meat production. We found that
the associations between gender (χ2 = 31.3481, p χ2 = 32.4889, p χ2 = 52.7556, p p