Seasonal distribution of CCHF vectors in Khouzistan province, Iran during 2013-2014

Background: Crimean-Congo Hemorrhagic Fever (CCHF) is a severe tick-born illness caused by the CCHFV. Herd are Playing the main host to ticks, and ticks are a vector of CCHF. Therefore, this survey on ticks of Khouzistan province carried out in 2013, in the Southwest of Iran , in order to specify tick species parasitizing livestocks and their seasonal population dynamics.Methods: During a survey for possible tick population of Khouzistan province as one of the critical epidemiologic areas in Iran, ticks were collected from the body of infested animals by a tweezer and then transported to the laboratory of Medical Entomology, School of Public Health, Tehran University of Medical Sciences and finally were identifified to genus and species level using identification key.Results: A total number of 372 hard ticks were collected randomly from 458 livestocks in 7 different cities. Shosh was the most infected city in this study. The ticks occur on sheep, goats, cow, as 84.12%, 12.69 % and 3.17%, respectively. In the study 2 genus and six species of hard ticks were identified including Rhipicephalus sanguineus, Hyalomma anatolicum, Hyalomma asiaticum, Hyalomma sp., Hyalomma marginatum and Rhipicephalus turanicus. Rhipicephalus sanguineus was the most frequent species in the study area.Conclusion: Outbreak of human cases of CCHF in parallel with ticks’ distribiution shows the importance of this survey. Despite of studies that have been done on ticks distribution and ticks infestation in Iran recently but no study has been done yet about this field in this province