Biodiversity of ticks of sheep and goats in semi-intensive farming system in Vojvodina

Abstract

The present study was conducted in 90 sheep and goats flocks from the territory of Vojvodina in the two years period of March 2016 to October 2017, during the grazing season. Tick infestation was deteected in 53.14% of examined animals. The most dominant was Ixodes ricinus (43.91%), followed by Dermacentor marginatus (31.91%), Rhipicephalus bursa (15.22%), R.sanguineus (8.72%), Hyalomma savignyi (3.72%),, Haemaphysalis punctata (3.21%) and D.pictus (2.72%) . The sex ratio of detected tick species showed a higher number of females in four species (I.ricinus, H.punctata, R.sanguineus and D.marginatus), while higher number of males were detected in two species (R.bursa and Hy.savignyi), and an equal number of ticks of the D.pictus. The population dynamics of recorded tick species showed two annual maxima, in spring (April- May) and in autumn (September-October). The considerable interchange between spring and autumn tick populations can be attributed mainly to environmental conditions.