Tick infestation patterns in the southern province of Zambia

Abstract

The species-patterns and incidence level of ticks on the larger wild animals and on rodents were examined between 1966 and 1969 in the Southern Province, Zambia. The rodents, except for the elephant shrew, porcupine, and hare, were infrequently infested. The antelopes, except for the eland, had a mean infestation of under nine per individual, the buffalo, zebra, suids and the eland over 20. Twenty species of ticks were found on these hosts. On the ruminants Hyalomma rufipes Koch was absent, and H. truncatum Koch was the most frequent; Rhipicephalus simus Koch, R. tricuspis Dön. and R. pravus group were common. Boophilus decoloratus (Koch) was rare, R. evertsi Neum. infrequent except on zebra and lechwe, and R. appendiculatus Neum occurred on only four of the 15 ruminant species examined. Except on the elephant, Amblyomma was represented solely by A. pomposum Dön.Periodic deticking of cattle, sheep and goats yielded precise quantitative information on the seasonal changes in incidence and species-patterns of ticks. Eighteen species were found on the domestic herbivores. On cattle B. decoloratus was usually numerous and often dominant, except where controlled by dipping or spraying. Compared with infestations on wild animals, H. rufipes was frequent, A. pomposum was replaced by A. variegatum (F.), and R. evertsi and R. appendiculatus were numerous; R. simus, R. tricuspis and the R. pravus group were usually in relatively low numbers.The proportions of the different species on cattle varied widely between the stations and at different seasons. Intensive stocking, with resultant grazing down of the fieldlayer, increased the R. evertsi numbers markedly throughout the year, and depressed the numbers of Hyalomma sp., A. variegatum and of the less common Rhipicephalids during the dry season; except for A. variegatum, their numbers and those of R. appendiculatus rose, however, during the wet season to higher levels than on the less intensively stocked paddocks. Some evidence is presented that Barotse cattle are more heavily infested than Sindhi and Boran cattle.