Research Article
Epidemiological Distribution of Major Ectoparasites Species of
Small Ruminant in the Case of Chemical Control Campaign in
Welkait District, Tigray Region, Ethiopia
Berhe Leul ,
1
Afera Berihun,
2
and Kebede Etsay
2
1
Livestock Research Core Process, Humera Agricultural Research Center, Tigray Agricultural Research Institute,
Humera, Ethiopia
2
Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Mekelle University, P.O. Box 231, Mekelle, Tigray, Ethiopia
Correspondence should be addressed to Berhe Leul; shishayeberhe@gmail.com
Received 23 July 2019; Accepted 30 January 2020; Published 16 March 2020
Academic Editor: Aditya Prasad Dash
Copyright © 2020 Berhe Leul et al. is is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License,
which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
A cross-sectional study was carried out from November 2016 to May 2017 to identify the major ectoparasites species and potential
risk factors in Welkait district western part of Tigray region. A total of 102 sheep and 324 goats were physically examined and
samples were taken for laboratory analysis. Rhipicephalus evertsi evertsi with a prevalence of 58 (56.86%), Amblyomma gemma 12
(11.76%), Amblyomma variegatum 27 (26.47%), Boophilus decoloratus 7 (6.86%), and Hyalomma anatolicum excavatum 1 (0.98%)
in sheep and R. evertsi evertsi 108 (33.02%), A. gemma 8 (2.47%), A. variegatum 158 (48.77%), and R. B. decoloratus 19 (5.86%) in
goats were the most important tick species identified. Statistically significant difference (p < 0.05) was obtained in the prevalence
of A. gemma (x
2
� 14.981; p � 0.001) and A. variegatum (x
2
� 15.696; p � 0.001) between sheep and goats and R. B. decloratus
(x
2
� 8.137; p � 0.017), A. variegatum (x
2
� 90.159; p � 0.00p � 0.00), and A. gamma (x
2
� 18.642; p � 0.00) in goats and A.
variegatum (x
2
� 71.081; p � 0.00) and R. B. decloratus (x
2
� 28.980; p � 0.001) in sheep by agroecology. R. evertsi evertsi
(x
2
� 13.400; p � 0.001) and A. variegatum (x
2
� 13.511; p � 0.001) in goats and R. B. decoloratus (x
2
� 71.892; p � 0.001) and A.
gemma (x
2
� 6.414; p � 0.040) in sheep were found to have statistically significant association (p < 0.05) in the prevalence among
different body condition categories in the present study. R. evertsi evertsi (x
2
� 6.557; p � 0.010) and R. B. decoloratus (x
2
� 4.856;
p � 0.028) in goats and R. evertsi evertsi (x
2
� 5.776; p � 0.016) in sheep by sex group and R. evertsi evertsi (x
2
� 40.556; p � 0.001)
and A. variegatum (x
2
� 7.214; p � 0.007) in goats by age group were also statistically associated (p < 0.05). Infestation rate of R.
evertsi evertsi (x
2
� 7.136; p � 0.008), R. B. decoloratus (x
2
� 9.621; p � 0.002), and A. variegatum (x
2
� 10.372; p � 0.001) in goats
between flock type had statistically significant association (p < 0.05) in this study. e current result revealed that Linognathus
stenopsis was the second highest prevalent ectoparasite with an overall prevalence of 0.00% in sheep and 25.93% in goats. ere
was a statistically significant difference (p < 0.05) in the prevalence of L. stenopsis (x
2
� 32.940; p � 0.001) between the two species
and in body condition category (x
2
� 10.700; p � 0.005) in goats in the present study. Moreover, Ctenocephalides canis and
Ctenocephalides felis were the flea species found in the present report. Significant variation (p < 0.05) in C. canis prevalence among
different agroecology (x
2
� 10.264; p � 0.006) in goats and between adult and young age (x
2
� 5.052; p � 0.025) in sheep and
(x
2
� 21.267; p � 0.001) in goats was obtained in the present study. Sarcoptes scapie var. caprea with a prevalence of 0 (0.00%) in
sheep and 4 (1.23%) in goats had no significant association (p > 0.05) in all the risk factors considered. e present result indicated
that ectoparasites especially tick species were more prevalent in small ruminants and may affect the wellbeing and productivity of
goats and sheep in the study district. erefore, well-coordinated and urgent control intervention should be conducted.
1. Introduction
Data from the estimation of [1] indicate that Ethiopia is a
home for about 56.71 million cattle, 29.2 million sheep, 29.3
million goats, 9.9 million equines, 1.2 million camel, and
56.9 million poultry and Tigray region possess 4.6 million
cattle, 1.8 million sheep, 4.3 million goats, 0.8 million
equines, 0.6 million camel, and 6.2 million poultry of the
Hindawi
Journal of Tropical Medicine
Volume 2020, Article ID 4175842, 9 pages
https://doi.org/10.1155/2020/4175842