abundance, diversity, and seasonal dynamics of hard ticks infesting cattle in isfahan province, iran

The objectives of this study were to determine the diversity, seasonal dynamics, and abundance of ticks infesting cattle in isfahan, iran. the study was conducted in three traditional cattle farms. no acaricides were applied to the cattle at the selected farms. adult ticks were collected twice a month from different parts of the cattle's body. environmental data, including relative humidity, temperature, and rainfall, were recorded in each sampling. a total of 1206 ticks (56% males and 44% females) were collected in the selected farms. hyalomma anatolicum anatolicum was the most abundant species (85.5%), followed by hyalomma marginatum marginatum (8.7%) and rhipicephalus sanguinus (6.5%), respectively. ixodid tick abundance showed a dramatic increase, leading to remarkable abundance peaks during spring (april, may, and june) mainly due to the h. anatolicum anatolicum activity. the highest number of h. marginatum marginatum was found in the end of spring and early summer. r. sanguinus was only collected in march (end of winter) and june (end of spring). maximum density of the collected hard ticks was in spring (68.4%). approximately 27.1%, 3.5%, and 1% of the whole tick samples were collected in summer, fall, and winter, respectively. out of the total samples collected from different parts of the animals’ body, the maximum number of ticks were collected from udders (63.2%) followed by 36.1% from under the tail and 0.7% between the legs, while no ticks were found on the other parts of the animals’ body. a significant correlation was detected between tick abundance and mean temperature (p<0.05). since tick distribution is used for estimation of the distribution of tick-transmitted pathogens and climate as well as the intensity of livestock are changing in different regions of iran, further studies regarding the tick ecology and the relationship between ticks and environmental variables are helpful in predicting the probability of new tick species presence and prediction of the risk of tick-borne pathogen transmission in ecological zones of iran.