Diversity and distribution of tick species infesting goats with two new host records from Sri Lanka

An island-wide study on ticks that infest the domestic goat, Capra aegagrus hircus was carried out from June 2011 to May 2013. A total of 2,628 ticks were collected in 22 districts within the three agro-climatic zones in Sri Lanka from 740 goats belonging to various breeds. Eight species of ticks belonging to the two genera Haemaphysalis and Rhipicephalus (Family Ixodidae) including Haemaphysalis bispinosa, H. intermedia, H. cuspidata, Rhipicephalus sanguineus, R. haemaphysaloides, R. turanicus, R. (Boophilus) annulatus and R. (Boophilus) microplus were recorded. The most common species in the overall collection were H. intermedia (44.0%) and H. bispinosa (43.8 %). Haemaphysalis bispinosa was the dominant species in the Wet and Intermediate Zones, except in a few locations. In these exceptions H. intermedia was the dominant species, which was also the most abundant species found in the Dry Zone. Haernaphysalis bispinosa and R. sanguineus were restricted only to the Wet and Intermediate Zones. Of the eight tick species found, the two species, R. turanicus and R. microplus were new host records from Sri Lanka. More adult stages (70.8 %) were found in goats, where nymphs and larvae formed 25.9 and 3.3 %, respectively. All three stages of the dominant tick species were found on goats except for immature stages of R. haemaphysaloides and R. sanguineus. Most ticks preferred the anterior side of the body with one exception, R. microplus, which was more attracted to the posterior side of the host. This study reports the tick species infesting goats with zoonotic potential and also known vectors of many tick borne diseases of human and livestock.