Cattle infestation by lice in Northern Tunisia

Abstract

The reported study was carried out from October 2014 to January 2015 and involved 622 cattle belonging to a dairy farm in North Tunisia. Each animal was examined once for the presence of lice. The infestation prevalence was estimated at 14.3% (89/622). Three louse species were collected: Linognathus vituli (2.7%), Haematopinus eurysternus (11.4%) and Bovicola bovis (0.8%). The co-infestation prevalence was 0.6% and concerned only B. bovis and L. vituli, collected from four calves (three males and one female). Calves were infested by the three species, L. vituli (17.5%), B. bovis (5.2%) and H. eurysternus (1.0%), whereas adults were only infested by H. eurysternus (13.3%). All H. eurysternus parasites were found on the tail of the animals, whereas L. vituli was present on the whole body. B. bovis infested the anterior body parts, mainly the dorsal region (60%) (p < 0.05). Clinical signs were observed only in calves under six months. The infested calves showed pruritus (63%) and depilation (37%).

Keywords

• cattle
• Phthiraptera
• Linognathus vituli
• Bovicola bovis
• Haematopinus eurysternus
• Tunisia