8- Dr telmadarei RTL_2_ Iran J Arthropod-Borne Dis, 2010, 4(2): 56–60 A Nasiri et al.: Tick Infestation Rate of … 56 Short Communication Tick Infestation Rate of Sheep and Their Distribution in Abdanan County, Ilam Province, Iran, 2007-2008 A Nasiri1, *Z Telmadarraiy1, H Vatandoost1, S Chinikar2, M Moradi2, MA Oshaghi1, Y Salim abadi1, Z Sheikh1, 1Department of Medical Entomology and Vector Control, School of Public Health, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran 2Pasteur Institute of Iran, Tehran, Iran (Received 6 Dec 2009; accepted 27 Jun 2010) Abstract Background: Ticks are hematophagous arthropod belonging to the Class of Arachnids. Ticks are also one of the major vectors of pathogens to animal and human. This study was conducted to determine tick infestation rate of sheep in Abdanan during 2007–2008. Methods: Sampling was performed seasonally in 19 villages during spring 2007 until winter 2008. A total of 1095 sheep were selected and tested for tick infestation. After collection, all ticks were transported to laboratory of Medi- cal Entomology and were identified with appropriate identification keys. Results: Totally, 864 hard ticks were collected. The ticks were classified into two genera and 5 species including: Hyalomma marginatum (44.67%), Hy. anatolicum (43.17%), Hy.asiaticum (6.37%), Hy. dromedarii (5.55%), Hea- maphysalis sulcata (0.24%). The highest seasonal activity was observed in spring (36.46 %) and the lowest seasonal was in winter (11.57%). The rate of tick frequency in mountainous region was 48.15% and it was 51.85% in plateau regions. In this study, tick infestation of sheep was 11.41%. Conclusion: Hy.marginatum has the more frequent density in the study area. Keywords: Ticks, sheep, Abdanan, Iran Introduction In the Arachnids arthropods, ticks are the main important vectors of disease to human and animals (Morel 1989). Ticks play a sig- nificant role as vectors of pathogens of do- mestic animals and human in Iran as well. The major losses caused by ticks are related to transmission of babesiosis, theileriosis, and Anaplasmosis in ruminants. There are several reports on, distribution, public health importance in the country. The tick study was started by Delpy (Delpy 1936) in Iran. Abbasian and Mazlum described a list of adult ticks collected from domestic animals in different region (Abbasian 1961, Mazlum 1971). Rodents which play as host of ticks also reported from different zoogeographical zones of the country (Filipova et al. 1976). Hoogstraal and Wassef studied ixodid ticks parasitizing wild sheep and goat in Iran (Hoogstraal et al.1979). The ecology of dif- ferent species of ticks on deomestic naimals also is emphasized (Rahbari 1995). Razmi et al 2002 published a list of tick species of domestic animals in northeast of Iran (Razmi et al. 2002). Distribution of soft ticks (Ar- gasidae) collected from human dwellings, poultries, and animal shelters in Hamadan Province, exhibited that they belong to the genus Argas and Ornithodoros (Vatandoost et al. 2003). The fauna of hard and soft ticks (families: Ixodidae and Argasidae) were studied in west Azerbaijan Province (Tel- *Corresponding author: Dr Zakiyeh Telmadarraiy, Email: ztelma@yahoo.co.in Iran J Arthropod-Borne Dis, 2010, 4(2): 56–60 A Nasiri et al.: Tick Infestation Rate of … 57 madarraiy et al.2004). Salari Lak et al. stud- ied the seasonal activity of ticks and their importance in tick borne infectious diseases in west Azerbaijan (Salari Lak et al. 2008). Distribution of tick fauna in Iran was also performed (Rahbari et al. 2008). Nabian and Rahbari studied the soft and hard ticks on ruminants in Zagros mountainous areas of Iran to determine the species and distribution of ticks infesting ruminants (Nabian et al. 2008). Distribution of ticks Meshkinshahr and Ardabil were carryout out (Telmadarraiy et al. 2009, 2010). Ilam Province including Abdanan City is one of the most important husbandry centers in western region of Iran. This study was conducted to determine tick infection rate of sheep in the Abdanan. Materials and Methods Study area Ilam Province is located in the western part of Iran and Abdanan County is located in the southeast of Ilam Province and has mild mountainous and tropical climate. This county is an important sheep breeding area in Ilam Province. This region comprises two parts differing in topography. The mountain and plateau region and the highest altitude considered as 880 m and its population is 47370 people. Tick collection Sampling was performed seasonally in 19 villages through one year during spring 2007 until winter 2008. A total of 1095 sheep were selected and were checked for tick infestation. After collection ticks from each sheep were kept alive in separate labeled holding tubes and were kept alive in labeled tubes and their history containing location, age, sex was recorded .The collection ticks in labeled holding tubes were transferred to the Entomology laboratory, School of Public Health, Tehran University of Medical Science for species identification. They were identi- fied by morphological characteristic using stereomicroscope and key identification guide (Kaiser et al. 1963, Walker et al. 2003). Results During this study, 864 hard ticks were collected from 1095 sheep. The ticks were classified into two genera and 5 species in- cluding Hy. marginatum (44.67%), Hy. anatolicum (43.17%), Hy. asiaticum (6.37%), Hy. dromdareii (5.55%), H. sulcata (0.24%) (Table 1). Tick infestation was detected in 125 (11.41%) out of 1095 sheep. Table 1 shows the seasonal activity of tick and the spatial infestation rate was (36.8%) in spring, (16.8%) in summer, (32.8%) in autumn and (13.6%) in winter, respectively. The highest tick seasonal activity was observed in spring (36.8 %) and the lowest seasonal were in winter (13.6%). The rate of tick frequency in mountainous region was 48.15% and it was 51.85% in plateau regions (Table 2). Table 3 shows relatively percentage of tick infestation of sheep in different seasons of year. Tick infestation of sheep was 11.41%. The sexual ratio of hard ticks, shows that the frequency of male ticks were (77%) and fe- male ticks were (23%). Table 1. Number of tick in the different seasons collected in Abdanan 2007–2008 Seasons Species Spring Summer Autumn Winter Total% Hyalomma marginatum 101 145 125 15 386(44.67) Hyalomma anatolicum 131 22 157 63 373(43.17) Hyalomma asiaticum 49 0 0 6 55(6.37) Hyalomma dromedarii 34 0 0 14 48(5.55) Heamaphysalis sulcata 0 0 0 2 2(0.24) Total 315(36.8) 167(16.8) 282(32.8) 100(13.6) 864(100) Iran J Arthropod-Borne Dis, 2010, 4(2): 56–60 A Nasiri et al.: Tick Infestation Rate of … 58 Table 2. Topographical status of ticks collected in Abdanan 2007–2008 Species Hy. marginatum Hy. anatolicum Hy. asiaticum Hy. dromdareii H. sulcata Total Percentage Mountain 148 195 44 27 2 416 48.15 Plateau 238 178 11 21 0 448 51.85 Table 3. Infectivity of sheep to ticks in Abdanan 2007–2008 Percentage Infected sheep Surveyed sheep Seasons 19.57 46 235 Spring 8.4 21 249 Summer 14.38 41 285 Autumn 5.2 17 326 Winter 11.41 125 1095 Total Discussion During this study 864 ticks from Ixodi- dae family were collected indicating the oc- currence of 5 species of hard ticks in Ab- danan. The frequency of the species of Hya- lomma marginatum were higher than the other species, and only 2 genera were col- lected. Seasonal activity of hard ticks in spring was more than other seasons. The oc- currence of hard ticks in plateau area was a few more than mountainous area. Piazak re- ported the seven species of genera Hyalomma (Hy. marginatum, Hy. detritum detritum, Hy. anatolicum anatolicum), Rhipicephalus (Rh. bursa), Heamaphysalis (H. sulcata), Der- macentor (D.marginatus), and Boophilus (B.annulatus) in East Azerbaijan (Piazak 1991). Tavakoli et al. carried out a study in Lorestan Province, and found that genus Hylaomma, was active during summer, and in our study, also this genus was the highest frequency and active in summer (Tavakoli 1997). Telmadarraiy et al. carried out a study in west Azerbaijan Province, and reported 13 species of ticks including: Boophilus annula- tus, Rh.bursa, Rh. sanguineus, Dermacentor marginatus, D. niveus, H. sulcata, H. inermis and Hy. asiaticum, Hy. marginatum, Hy. aegyptium, Hy. dromdarii, H. schulzei, Hy. detritum, that percentage of Hyalomma genus were 41% (Telmadarraiy et al. 2004). Nabian et al. emphasized that Hy. marginatum occurred as a dominant tick in the north of Iran. Their finding was similar to our results. In their study, thirteen hard tick species were identified as Hy.anatolicum anatolicum, Hy. marginatum, Hy. detritum, H.punctata, H. parva, H.concinna, H.choldokovsky, Ixodes ricinus, Rh. sanguineus, Rh.bursa, Boophilus annulatus, D. niveus, D. marginatus (Nabian et al. 2007). Telmadarraiy et al. (2009) also carried out a study in Meshkinshahr district and in this study, genus Hyalomma was the most frequent and seasonal activity of ticks was in spring. Salim abadi et al. carried out a study in Yazd Province and reported that genus Hyalomma was the most frequent (salim abadi et al.2010). This and others studies showed that tick infestation of sheep in Iran are around 10% and Hyalomma species was reported as a dominant tick in different part of Iran. In this survey, several tick species, which are important in diseases transmission in sheep and human, are identified. The sea- sonal and geographical activity of ticks will help authorities to provide appropriate strat- egy for tick control program. Iran J Arthropod-Borne Dis, 2010, 4(2): 56–60 A Nasiri et al.: Tick Infestation Rate of … 59 Acknowledgments We would like to appreciate the kind collaboration of all the staff of the Veteri- nary Office of Abdanan. This research was financially supported by Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Project No.8855. The authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest. References Abbasian L (1961) Record of tick (Acarina: Ixodidae) occurring in Iran and their dis- tributional data. Acarologia. 3: 546–559. Delpy L (1936) note sur les Ixodides du genera Hyalomma (koch). Ann Parasitol Hum Comp. 14: 206–245. Filopova NA, Neronov VM, Farhang- AzadA (1976) Data on ixodid tick fauna (Acarina, Ixodidae) of small mammals in Iran (in Russian). Ent Obozr. 55(2):467–479. Hoogstraal H, Wassef HY (1979) Haema- physalis kopetdaghica: identity and dis- covery of each feeding stage on the wild goat in northern Iran (Ixodoidea: Ixo- didae). J Parasitol. 65: 783–790. Kaiser MN, Hoogstraal H (1963) The Hya- lomma ticks of Afghanistan. J Parasitol. 49:130–139. Mazlum Z (1971) Tick of domestic animals in Iran, geographic distribution, host re- lation, and seasonal activity. J Vet Fac Univ Tehran. 27(1): 1–32. Morel P (1989) Tick-borne diseases of live- stock in Africa. In Manual of tropical ve-terinary parasitology. Fischer M and Ralph S (eds). pp 301-391. CAB inter- national, London, UK. Nabian S, Rahbari S, Shayan P, Haddad- zadeh HR (2007) Current status of tick fauna in north of Iran. Iran J Parasitol. 2(1): 12–17. Nabian S, Rahbari S (2008) Occurrence of soft and hard ticks on ruminants in Zagros mountainous areas of Iran. Iran J Ar- thropod-Borne Dis. 2(1): 16–20. Piazak N (1991) Preliminary studies on the presence of Lyme disease in Iran through the study of Ixodes ricinus population. [MSc thesis]. School of Public Health and Institute of Health Research, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Iran. Rahbari S (1995) Studies on some ecological aspects of tick fauna of West Azarbayjan, Iran. J Appl Anim Res. 7: 189–194. Rahbari S, Nabian S, Shayan P (2008) Pri- mary report on distribution of tick fauna in Iran. Iran J Arthropod-Borne Dis. 2(1): 16–20. Razmi GR, Naghibi A, Aslani MR, Fathivand M, Dastjerdi K (2002) An epidemi- ological study on ovine babesiosis in the Mashhad suburb area, province of Kho- rasan, Iran. Vet Parasitol. 108: 109–115. Salari-Lak SH, Vatandoost H, Telmadarraiy Z, Entezar-Mahdi R, Kia EB (2008) Seasonal activity of ticks and their im- portance in tick-borne infectious dis- eases in West Azerbaijan, Iran. Iran J Arthropod-Borne Dis. 2(2): 28–34. Salim abadi Y, Telmadarraiy Z, Vatandoost H, Chinikar S,Oshaghi MA, Moradi M, Mirabzadeh Ardakan E, Hekmat S, Nasiri A (2010) Hard Ticks on Domestic Ruminants and their Seasonal Population Dynamics in Yazd Province, Iran. Iran J Arthropod-Borne Dis. 4(1): 66–71. Tavakoli M (1997) Survey on geographical distribution of ticks in Lorestan prov- ince (western Iran). [MSc thesis]. Tarbiat Modarres University, Iran. Telmadarraiy Z, Bahrami A, Vatandoost H (2004) A survey on fauna of ticks in West Azerbaijan Province, Iran. Iran J Public Health.33 (4): 65–69. Telmadarraiy Z, Vatandoost H, Rafinejad J, Mohebali M, Tavakoli M, Abdigoudarzi M, Faghihi F, Aboulhasani M, Zarei Z, Jedari M. Mohtarami F, Azamsoulki A, Salari lak Sh, Entezarmahdi R (2009) Distribution of ticks (Ixodidae and Ar- gasidae) family and susceptibility level Iran J Arthropod-Borne Dis, 2010, 4(2): 56–60 A Nasiri et al.: Tick Infestation Rate of … 60 to cypermethrin in Meshkinshahr district, Ardabil province, Iran. Ardabil Uni. Med Sci J. 9(2): 1–7. Telmadarraiy Z, Ghiasi SM, Moradi M, Vatandoost H, Eshraghian MR, Faghihi F, Zarei Z, Heari A, Chinikar S (2010) A survey of Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever in livestock and ticks in Ardabil province, Iran during 2004-2005. Scan J Infect Dis. 42(2): 137–41. Vatandoost H, Ghaderi A, Javadian E, Zahir Nia AH, Rassi Y, Piazak N, Kia EB, Shaeghi M, Telmadarraiy Z, Abolhasani M (2003) Distribution of soft ticks and their infection with Borrelia in Hamadan province, Iran. Iran J Public Health. 32(1): 22–24. Walker AR, Bouattour A, Camicas JL, Estrada- Pena A, Horak IG, Latif A, Pegram RG, Preston PM (2003) Ticks of domestic animals in Africa, A guide to identification of species. Bioscience Reports, U.K .