author(s)
Shakuntala Kage, Mamatha GS, Jaya Nagappa Lakkundi, BP Shivashankar and Placid Eugene D’Souza

abstract
A study was conducted to know the prevalence of ixodid ticks on Babesia ovis infected sheep and goats in Bengaluru Urban and Rural districts of Karnataka state. Out of 343 animals examined (225 sheep and 118 goats) from 44 flocks of both ailing and apparently healthy groups, 188 (83.55%) sheep and 96 (81.35%) goats were infested with ticks. An overall infestation rate was found to be 82.79 per cent. In a total of 253 and 99 ticks collected from infested sheep and goats, respectively 30.83 and 17.17 per cent were identified as Haemaphysalis kutchensis, 24.50 and 25.25 per cent as Rhipicephalus sanguineus, 20.94 and 28.28 per cent as Haemaphysalis bispinosa, 15.01 and 12.12 per cent as Rhipicephalus haemaphysaloides and 8.69 and 17.17 per cent as Hyalomma marginatum isaaci. A majority of the ticks were infested in the ears and least number of ticks were found on other parts of the body.