Determination and Prevalence of Ticks in Cattle in Konya Province of Turkey

Abstract
Ticks are common in the world. Diseases caused by ticks and fleas bring significant economic losses to the livestock industry. With the pathogens they carry, Blood-fed ticks infect humans and domestic animals. This study was conducted between January 01 and August 30, 2018, in the Konya province of Turkey, to determine the prevalence and species of ticks in cattle. 272 pieces of cattle were examined in terms of tick infestations. These cattle were selected from herds of 16 different cattle breeders in 5 different regions of Konya. Ticks were collected by the simple random sampling method. Tick infestation was detected in 70 (25.7%) pieces of cattle that were examined during the study.Tick infestation was followed in 68 (29.3%) pieces female cattle and 2 (5%) pieces male cattle. During the study conducted, the following results had been determined; according to age, 12 (14.5%) of ticks were juvenile, 58 (30.7%) of them were adults, according to the body condition, 26 (23.4%) of them were good, 35 (26.1%) of them were average and 9 (33.3%) of them were week.It is found that cattle in the study area were infested in the tick species Rhipicephalus (Boophilus) annulatus 65/272 (23.9%) and R. bursa 5/272 (%1.8). 332 female and 304 male total of 636 ticks were collected from the cattle. Genders were determined under a stereomicroscope. The high tick infestation shows that fight against tick is a hard process, and planning is a must to reduce the tick burden in cattle. Besides, this study will enable us to make suggestions to the relevant sectors in terms of parasitic struggle in eliminating the health and economic problems caused by ticks in the Konya province by determining the prevalence and species.