Sheep and goats sustain an expensive profitable and environmental position in Asian agriculture (Devendra 1996). Majority of the livestock owners earn their income through sale of additional animals and their by-products. There are several factors affecting the production potential of livestock. Among these, parasitic infestations are prevalent, affecting different livestock species all over the world. Parasitic infestation especially ecto-parasites are the major veterinary problems in most of the developing and under developed countries of the world. The physical condition and production in animals is severely affected by tick and mite infestation. It is one of the most common problem of sheep characterized by anemia, poor physical condition, decreased milk quality and poor meat production.. The present study was conducted on ticks and mites to study their prevalence, their effect on various blood parameters and to evaluate the efficacy of Ivermectin and Azadirchta indica (neem oil) on sheep in and around Lahore, Pakistan.
In this study 300 sheep suspected for tick and mite infestation on the basis of clinical signs were collected from outdoor hospital of University of Veterinary and Animal Sciences Lahore, Outreach hospital Sitar wala and Civil Veterinary Hospital Thokar Niaz Biag. The tick sample were collected with the help of foreceps and mites sample through skin scraping. Out of this 300, 198 samples were collected from outdoor hospital UVAS Lahore, from which 84 were positive with prevalence of 42.42% for tick and mite infestation, and 62 samples were collected from outreach hospital Sitarwala from which 24 were positive giving prevalence of 38.70% and 40 samples were collected from CVH Thokar Niaz Biag, out of which 17 samples were positive with prevalence of 42.5%. All the collected samples were processed at medicine laboratory, UVAS, Lhr.
Whereas in the third part therapeutic trials on 20 sheep (n=15 tick and mite infested and n=5 healthy sheep) was done and divided into four groups A, B, C&D. Each group was comprised of 5 sheep .In group A, the infested sheep were treated with two doses of ivermectin 0.2mg/kgS/C 7 days apart, on 7th day its efficacy was 40%and on 14th day it gave 100% efficacy. In group B the infested sheep were treated with neem oil (Azadirachta indica) @1 table spoon, its efficacy was 20% on 7th day and on 14th its gave 40% efficacy, in group C infested sheep were kept as positive control, whereas healthy sheep were included in group D.
In the second part of present project haematological studies on 10 sheep (n=5 tick and mite infested sheep, n=5 healthy sheep) were performed to see the effect of tick and mite infestation on various blood parameters (Hb, PCV,TLC) and it was fsound that Hb and PCV values were decreased whereas TLC was increased in infested sheep.
The therapeutic trials of this study concluded that the Ivermectin was most effective drug against ticks and mites in sheep.