Morphological and Genotypic Identification of Bovineinfesting Ticks in Al-Diwaniyah Province, Iraq

Abstract

Tick skin invasion is one of the important ectoparasitic infestations occurred worldwide and in Iraq, which is correlated with tick-borne diseases such as theileriosis, babesiosis, and anaplasmosis; however, more recently, in Iraq, an identified number of cases belonged to Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever (CCHF) were caused and transmitted via ticks that infested ruminants in Al-Diwaniyah Province. According to this importance, the present characterizing study was launched to identify the current circulating ticks in this province. Inspection of 196 bovine animals (males and females distributed over different regions and seasons)for the presence of ticks; 54 animals were found to have such parasitic infestation. From those infested animals, 108 adult ticks were collected. Ticks were exposed to a series of morphological identification in the