Species composition and geographic distribution of ticks infesting cattle, goats and dogs in Maputo Province, Mozambique

Abstract

The primary objective of this study was to determine the species composition of ticks that infest domestic animals in Maputo Province and their geographic distributions. To this end a total of 145 cattle, 129 goats, 132 dogs and 63 drag­samples of the vegetation were examined at 30 localities distributed throughout the province, at each of which the geographic coordinates were recorded and later plotted. A total of 15187 ixodid ticks belonging to 15 species were recovered. These were Amblyomma hebraeum, Haemaphysalis elliptica, Haemaphysalis sp., Hyalomma rufipes, Ixodes cavipalpus, Rhipicephalus (Boophilus) microplus, Rhipicephalus appendiculatus, Rhipicephalus evertsi evertsi, Rhipicephalus kochi, Rhipicephalus longus, Rhipicephalus pravus group, Rhipicephalus sanguineus, Rhipicephalus simus, Rhipicephalus tricuspis and Rhipicephalus turanicus. R. (B.) microplus and A. hebraeum were most abundant on cattle, while H. elliptica was most abundant on dogs. H. elliptica, I. cavipalpus, R. longus and R. turanicus can now be added to the lists of ixodid tick species previously published for Mozambique. The geographic distributions of nine of the 15 tick species were mapped, and A. hebraeum, H. elliptica and R. evertsi evertsi were present throughout the province. No indigenous Rhipicephalus (Boophilus) decoloratus were recovered, whereas the introduced Asian tick, R. (B.) microplus was present in all districts. It would seem that R. (B.) decoloratus has been completely displaced by R. (B.) microplus in Maputo Province. Although R. appendiculatus was recovered at 24 of the 30 localities, it was present at only two of the seven localities in the south of the province. R. sanguineus was present on dogs in the districts of Boane, Naamacha and Manhiça, where the collections were made at the dog owners’ homes. R. simus was present at 27 localities and R. turanicus was collected in the districts of Magude, Boane, Namaacha and Matutuine, in the north, centre and south of the province. Future surveys in Mozambique should focus on determining the extent to which R. (B.) microplus has displaced R. (B.) decoloratus. A further objective of the study was to compare the prevalence of the five major tick species, namely A. hebraeum, R. (B.) microplus, R. appendiculatus, R. evertsi evertsi and R. simus on cattle and goats. It was possible to do this at 21 of the sampling sites, at each of which five cattle and five goats had been examined. These five ticks infested both cattle and goats, but the goats harboured larger numbers of immature ticks and fewer adults of some species, while large numbers of both adult and immature ticks were recovered from cattle. Furthermore, more cattle than goats at more localities were infested with adult ticks of each of the five species. Consideration should be given to including goats in future tick control programmes applied to cattle on the same properties. A total of ten ixodid tick species were recovered from dogs in Maputo Province. Of these H. elliptica, R. sanguineus, R. simus and R. turanicus can be considered major parasites of dogs, while large numbers of immature A. hebraeum and smaller numbers of immature R. appendiculatus infested these animals opportunistically.