Research Article Ectoparasites Prevalence in Small Ruminants in and around Sekela, Amhara Regional State, Northwest Ethiopia Zewdu Seyoum, 1 Tsegaye Tadesse, 2 and Agerie Addisu 3 1 Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, University of Gondar, P.O. Box 196, Gondar, Ethiopia 2 Amhara National Regional State Bureau of Agriculture, Sekela, Ethiopia 3 College of Natural and Computational Sciences, University of Gondar, P.O. Box 196, Gondar, Ethiopia Correspondence should be addressed to Zewdu Seyoum; zewdus@yahoo.com Received 6 October 2014; Revised 6 March 2015; Accepted 20 March 2015 Academic Editor: Nora Mestorino Copyright © 2015 Zewdu Seyoum et al. Tis 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. Tis study was conducted to determine the prevalence and type of ectoparasites and to identify risk factors associated with ectoparasite infestations in small ruminants in and around Sekela, Northwest Ethiopia. Clinical examination and laboratory analysis were made on 304 sheep and 96 goats. Te collected raw data were analyzed using  2 -test. Out of the 400 sampled animals, 182 (45.5%) were infested with one or more ectoparasites. Te prevalent ectoparasites observed were lice, ticks, Ctenocephalides species, Melophagus ovinus, and Demodex species. Te infestation rates of ectoparasites with age and sex were signifcantly varied ( < 0.05) in sheep but not in goats ( > 0.05). Body condition score was not signifcantly associated ( > 0.05) with ectoparasites infestation in both sheep and goats. In our attempt, only two cases due to Demodex species were recorded in sheep. In conclusion, the prevalence of ectoparasites in the present study was high and this could afect the wellbeing and productivity of small ruminants. Terefore, to reduce ectoparasites prevalence and impact on the productivity and health status, planning of integrated control measures with sustainable veterinary services aiming at creating awareness about the importance and control of ectoparasites for livestock owners is required. 1. Introduction Ethiopia with its greatest variation in climate and topography possesses one of the largest small ruminant populations in the world, which is kept extensively mostly by small holder farm- ers and adjacent to crop production [1, 2]. Small ruminants represent an important segment of the Ethiopian livestock system. Tey are important sources of income for the agricul- tural communities and are one of the country major sources of foreign currency through skin and meat export and are among important sources of animal protein, providing 35% of meat and 14% of milk consumption. Te national small rumi- nant population is estimated to be 63 million heads, which are raised in diferent agroecological regions of the country [2]. However, the contribution from this huge population to food production and export income is far below the expected potential. Tis would be due to the compound efects of several factors among which is ectoparasitism [1, 3]. Infestation by ectoparasites could lead to considerable economic losses to farmers due to loss of productivity, mortality, and skin diseases. Ectoparasites including lice, sheep keds, ticks, feas, and mange mites are reported to cause a wide range of health problems such as mechanical tissue damage, irritation, infammation, hypersensitivity, abscesses, weight loss, lameness, anaemia, and in severe cases death of infested animals with the consequent socioeconomic impli- cations [4–7]. In addition, ectoparasite infestations could induce great economic losses due to reduction of wool quality, meat and milk yield, and losses as a result of culling and related with cost of treatment and prevention of the problem. Tey are also responsible for great preslaughter skin defects, resulting in downgrading and rejection of small ruminant skins [8, 9]. According to tanneries reports, skin defects due to ectoparasite efects cause 35% of sheep and 56% of goat skin rejections in Ethiopia [10]. Moreover, ectoparasites are known to have zoonotic importance and be capable of transmitting Hindawi Publishing Corporation Journal of Veterinary Medicine Volume 2015, Article ID 216085, 6 pages http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2015/216085