Morphological and Molecular Confirmation of Bovine Tick Species in Wasit Province, Iraq

Abstract

Tick is the second largest vector of diseases, which infests many domestic and wild animals resulting in great economic losses due to morbidities and mortalities. This study aims for morphological characterization and molecular confirmation of bovine ticks using respectively the traditional microscopy and conventional PCR assay targeting the 18S rRNA gene. Totally, 600 cattle of different ages and sexes were subjected for clinical investigation to identify the presence of ticks in various areas in Al-Kut city (Wasit province, Iraq) during June to July (2023). The findings revealed that 65.17% of study cattle were having the ticks on different bodily parts including udder (43.26%); while, significant lowering was seen in neck (4.93%), forelimb (7.4%) and hind-limb (10.82%) when compared to ear (14.04%) and perineal region (19.55%). Morphologically, the findings revealed that all samples were hard ticks and belong to the genus of Hyalomma; while molecularly, the PCR results confirmed that all collected ticks belonged to genus of Hyalomma anatolicum. In conclusion, this study demonstrated that the great naturally occurring the populations of the ticks in cattle, and that Hyalomma anatolicum remains the almost widespread species of ticks in Iraq. In addition, adult ticks are the easiest to identify and male and female ticks of the same species may look different, while nymphal and larval ticks are very small and may be hard to detect. This study recommended investigating all ticks species found in all Iraqi areas using the morphological and molecular techniques due to the definite role of this external parasite in transmission of various diseases to both animals and humans.