TITLE:
Prevalence of Tick Infestations and Tick-Borne Diseases in Cattle in Cameroon
AUTHORS:
Hamidou Hayatou, Félix Meutchieye, Fatima Ezzahra Amarir, Abdelkbir Rhalem, Mohammed Bouslikhane, Julius Awah-Ndukum
KEYWORDS:
Prevalence, Tick, Blood Disease, Cattle, Cameroon
JOURNAL NAME:
Open Journal of Animal Sciences,
Vol.13 No.4,
October
30,
2023
ABSTRACT: Ticks induce huge production and economic losses in the livestock industry and create serious environmental, animal and human
health problems. The study was carried out to characterize tick species and
determine the prevalence of tick infestation and tick-borne diseases in cattle
in Cameroon. Tick and blood samples were collected from a total of 742 animals
and analyzed to determine the type of tick and haemoparasites using standard
procedures. Overall, four tick species namely Amblyomma variegatum (75.09%), Rhipicephalus
microplus (19.43%), Rhipicephalus decoloratus (0.88%) and Hyalomma marginatum (0.18%) and six blood disease agents including Anapalasma marginale (11.29%), Ehrlichia
ruminantium (3.52%), Babesia bovis (1.32%), Babesia major (0.44%), Anaplasma phagocytophilum (0.29%) and Dermatophilus congolensis (3.37%). Various co-infections were recorded and
the predominant associations were Amblyomma
variegatum-Rhipicephalus microplus (4.06%) and Amblyomma variegatum-Hyalomma marginatum (0.36%); Anaplasma-Ehrlichia (12%), Anaplasma-Dematophylus (8%), Babesia-Anaplasma-Ehrlichia (14%) and Babesia-Anaplasma-Ehrlichia-Dermato-phylus (5%). Breed, sex, age and locality significantly influenced the rate of
tick infestation while locality, breed and age significantly influenced the
detection of blood disease agents in the study.