Vector collection and diversity at LMs and SHs
A total of 456 ticks (434 adults and 22 nymphs), 28 lice (Haematopinus suis ), and two fleas (Ct.felis ) collected from cattle, goats, sheep, and pigs at LMs and SHs were analysed in this study. Over 80% of the vectors collected at LMs and SHs came from cattle (Supplementary Table 2). This was partially due to the fact that 60% of the animals sampled at each of these locations were cattle, which were generally more tick-infested than goats, sheep, or pigs. The lice were primarily collected from pigs at SHs and the fleas were collected from cattle.
Representative specimens of Rhipicephalus evertsi (one adult),Rhipicephalus appendiculatus (one adult, one nymph),Amblyomma gemma (one adult), Amblyomma variegatum (one adult, one nymph), Haemaphysalis sp. (one adult), Rhipicephalus decoloratus (one adult), and Rhipicephalus spp. (six adults, one nymph), identified morphologically (Supplementary Figure 1), were selected for molecular tick identification (Table 1). Molecular identifications concurred with morphological identifications for Rh. appendiculatus (T16), Rh. decoloratus (T134), and Am. variegatum (T199). However, we resolved a tick specimen (T105) that we morphologically identified as Rh. decoloratus to be Rh. microplus based on its 16S rRNA sequence homology. The ITS2 sequence of an Am. gemma (T222) had highest homology with Am. hebraeum, as there were no other Am. gemma ITS2 reference in the GenBank database. Seven out of nine specimens of Rhipicephalus, Haemaphysalis, and Amblyomma spp. that could not be identified to species level by morphology alone were identified based on sequence homologies of at least two of the markers. The most commonly sampled tick species were Rh. decoloratus (35%) and Am. variegatum (30%).