Ectoparasites infestation of free-roaming and owned domestic cats (Felis Catus) recovered from four residential areas in Lundu, Matang, Simpang Tiga and Stampin, Sarawak

Domestic cats (Felis catus) are natural hunters that able to stalk prey and pounce with sharp claws and teeth. The free-roaming and owned domestic cats are differing from their living environment, food source, regularity of health inspection from the veterinarian, amount of contact with human and other animals and etc. However, there is still little knowledge on the parasites of these cats in Sarawak. Therefore, this study is conducted to compare the ectoparasites distribution and infestation prevalence between free-roaming and owned domestic cats from four different residential areas in Sarawak. The selected residential areas include Kampung Stunggang Melayu Baru in Lundu, Kampung Matang Lot in Matang, Persiaran Spring in Jalan Simpang Tiga and Taman BDC in Stampin, Sarawak. Kampung Stunggang Melayu Baru and Kampung Matang Lot are categorized as rural areas whereas Persiaran Spring and Taman BDC are categorized as urban areas. A total number of 120 domestic cats of different age groups and both sexes were examined for the presence of ectoparasites. These included a total of 15 owned domestic cats and 15 free-roaming cats from each sampling site. Out of 120, 65 cat individuals were positively infested. The total percentage of ectoparasites infestation was 54.17%, which include 58.33% (35/60) of freeroaming and 50.00% (30/60) of owned cats were infested. Ectoparasites infestation of domestic cats recovered from Kampung Stunggangg Melayu Baru, Kampung Matang Lot, Persiaran Spring and Taman BDC are 83.33% (25/30), 63.33% (19/30), 33.33% (10/30) and 36.67% (11/30), respectively. A total of 325 individuals of ectoparasites from eight species were collected. These included Ctenocephalides felis (40.00%), Felicola subrostratus (8.33%), Haemaphysalis koningsbergeri (7.50%), Haemaphysalis sp. 1 (1.67%), Haemaphysalis sp. 2 (4.17%), Haemaphysalis sp. 3 (5.00%), Haemaphysalis sp. 4 (1.67%) and Haemaphysalis sp. 5 (0.83%). In this study, there is a significant difference between any two sampling sites that comparing rural area with urban area. In conclusion, Kampung Stunggang Melayu Baru has the highest ectoparasites infestation on domestic cats followed by Kampung Matang Lot, Taman BDC and lastly Persiaran Spring