Prevalence of ticks on rangeland domestic ruminants in Kajiado District, Kenya

The prevalence of ticks in cattle, sheep and goats in three group ranches in the arid area of Kajiado District in Kenya was studied. Four differet genera were identified from a total of 2,546 ticks collected. Of all the ticks collected, Rhipicephalus constituted 80.45 percent, Amblyomma 16.3 percent, Hyalomma 2.64 percent and Boophilus 0.6 percent. Anaplasmosis, theileriosis and babesiosis were identified from blood and lymph nodes smears of animals from which the ticks were collected. The prevalence of these tick-borne diseases was 3.9 percent, 2.6 percent and 0.4 percent for anaplasmosis, theileriosis and babesiosis respectively.