author(s)
Mohammed Suleiman, Ramlatu Abubakar, Yusuf Fawziyyah Ahmed and Basira Usman Muhammad

abstract
This study was conducted to investigate the prevalence of ectoparasites infesting cattle, goat and sheep slaughtered at Katsina central abattoir, Nigeria. Ectoparasites were collected randomly from 120 each of cattle, goats and sheep. The ectoparasites were examined thoroughly for morphological identification. Two types of ectoparasites, ticks and lice were identified infesting the ruminants. The tick species are Amblyomma variegatum, Boophilus decolaratus, Hyalomma marginatum, Rhipicephalus appendiculatus, and Rhipicephalus microphilus while those of lice are Damalinia bovis, Damalinia ovis, Linognathus africanus, and Linognathus vituli. Cattle had the highest prevalence (75.0%) of ectoparasites followed by sheep (58.3%) and goat (37.5%). Boophilus decolaratus was the most abundant tick species (12.2%) and Rhipicephalus microplus (1.1%) was the least. Among the lice species, Linognathus africanus (12.2%) had the highest prevalence and Damalinia bovis was the least (1.7%). Young group of the ruminants had the highest prevalence than their adult group. Similarly, the ectoparasites were more prevalent on female animals than on their male counterparts. Insignificant difference (p>0.05) was observed in the prevalence of ectoparasites infestation among the sexes and ages of the selected ruminant animals.