ticks are blood - sucking ectoparasites which transmit serious diseases to animals and humans . they are considered as main vectors for transmission of many viral , bacterial , rickettsial and parasitical pathogens ( garcia 2007 ) .
several tick species are important in veterinary medicine as vectors of theileriosis , babesiosis and anaplasmosis .
in addition , lyme disease , ehrlishiosis , babesiosis , rocky mountain fever , colorado tick fever , tularemia , q fever , spotted fever , tick paralysis and tick encephalitis are the most common diseases which have been transmitted to human by ticks .
they transmit diseases , produce paralysis , weight loss and cause economic damages to livestock ( 
 wall 2001 ) . in view of the disease relationships of ticks , rhipicephalus species are important vectors of ovine babesiosis and ovine ehrlichiosis .
annulata and crimean - congo hemorrhagic fever virus ( jongejan and uilenberg 1994 , chinikar et al .
( 2010 ) carried out a study in yazd province , and reported 7 species of ticks including : hy .
numerous studies on the distribution of tick fauna in iran have been conducted ( delpy 1936 , abbasian 1961 , mazlum 1971 , razmi et al .
2004 ) reported different species of ixodidae ( hard ticks ) in rawalpindi and islamabad , pakistan .
sulcata and hy . anatolicum was highly significant in this region . this article was conducted to collect and identify the tick species prevalent in domestic animals in zabol county .
sistan and baluchestan is located in the southeast of iran and zabol is in the north of this province with hot and dry desert climate .
the latitude and longitude gps coordinates of zabol ( iran ) is : lat : 31.0385 , long : 61.4962 .
this survey was carried out to investigate the prevalence of hard tick species ( acari : ixodidae ) on cattle in zabol county during 2012 .
sampling was done during the activating seasons of ticks ( i.e. summer and spring ) .
the number of ticks was determined according to the cochran formula : 
 ( n = z2pqd2 ) 
 where , n= sample size , z= 1.96 , p= 0.56 prevalence estimated , q= 1p , d= 0.45 . a total number of 469 hard ticks were collected from sheep , goats , cattle and camels .
the ticks were collected from the body of infested animals and stored in 70% ethanol , then transported to the laboratory of zabol university of medical sciences .
following examinations under stereomicroscope , ticks were identified using available taxonomic keys ( kaiser et al .
a total number of 469 adult ticks ( 381 males and 88 females ) were collected from , sheep , goats , cattle , and camels .
subspecies and numbers of male ticks collected in zabol , during 2012 ( percentage of male ticks was calculated ) table 2 shows the frequency of different tick species on various hosts .
the maximum number of ticks was collected from sheep and goats 253(66.4% ) , followed by camels 73(19.16% ) and cattle 55 ( 14.43% ) .
the host of collected ticks in zabol , during 2012 rhipicephalus species were observed in sheep and goats .
this article reports a study conducted to collect and identify the tick species prevalent in domestic animals in zabol , during year 2012 .
a similar study was also reported from meshkinshahr ( a northwest area in iran ) in 2009 by telmadarraiy , in which most of the ticks belonged to genus rhipicephalus and hyalomma ( telmadarraiy et al .
rhipicephalus sanguineus ticks are widely distributed around the world and one of the most common species in sheep herds in northeast of iran ( razmi et al . 2007 ) . in view of the importance of these species ,
hyalomma ticks are widespread in north africa , southern europe , middle east , central asia and china ( durrani et al . 2009 ) , including the species that are vectors of various diseases in humans and domestic animals .
different species of ticks play an important role for the transmission of crimean - congo hemorrhagic fever ( cchf ) across the country . according to the findings
, geographical distribution of cchf cases corresponds most closely with the distribution of hyalomma ticks , although , some species of dermacentor and rhipicephalus genera have the ability of transmission ( chinikar et al .
a total number of 469 adult ticks ( 381 males and 88 females ) were collected .
( 2007 ) indicated that the number of ticks on each animal was low and male ticks were more than the females .
( 2010 ) collected ticks from sheep in abdanan township and showed that the frequency of male and female ticks was ( 77% ) and ( 23% ) , respectively .
( 2004 ) reported different species of ixodidae ( hard ticks ) in rawalpindi and islamabad of pakistan .
sulcata and hy . anatolicum was highly significant in this region . in the above mentioned studies , the researchers reported the genus of dermacentor and heamaphysalis which were not found in our article . as was found in this article ,
schulzei is the common species in the saravan area of sistan and baluchestan , iran .
abbassian - lintzen ( 19601961 ) and mazlum ( 1971 ) found that these ticks usually occur on camels . in ethiopia , camels were infested with hy .
( 2011 ) reported hard ticks infestation of one - humped camels in qeshm island .
abbasian - lintzen ( 1961 ) described it as the single species in south - eastern iran near the pakistan borders , but nabian et al .
were collected from sheep and goats because they are the dominant livestock of the surveyed area .
as the incidence of the tick - borne disease increases and the geographic areas in which they are found is expanding , it becomes increasingly important to distinguish tick species , which is essential to promote tick and tick - borne disease control .
the results obtained from the present study serve as the starting point for future epidemiological studies and further investigations are needed to detect the vector role of ticks in this area .
 background : ticks are important vectors of human and animal pathogens . 
 they are considered as main vectors for transmission of many viral , bacterial , rickettsial and parasitical pathogens . 
 the aim of the present study was to find out species diversity of ticks , which infested the domestic ruminants in zabol county , eastern iran in 2012.methods:ticks were selected randomly from sheep , goats , cattle and camels . 
 the ticks were collected from the body of infested animals and stored in 70% ethanol , then transported to the laboratory of zabol university of medical sciences . following examinations under stereomicroscope , ticks were identified using available taxonomic keys.results:in this study , a total number of 469 adult ticks ( 381 males and 88 females ) were collected . 
 ticks were classified into 2 genera and 9 species including : hyalomma dromedarii ( 17.3% ) , hy . 
 schulzei ( 1.8% ) , hy . 
 marginatum ( 0.5% ) , hy . 
 anatolicum excavatum ( 12.60% ) , hy . 
 anatolicum anatolicum ( 11.2% ) , hy . 
 asiaticum asiaticum ( 11.0% ) , rhipicephalus sanguineus ( 21.2% ) , rh . 
 bursa ( 10.2% ) and rh . 
 turacunis ( 13.911% ) . 
 the frequency of genus hyalomma ( 54.6% ) was higher than rhipicephalus . 
 rh . 
 sanguineus was the predominant tick species and accounted for 21.26% of the ticks . 
 the ratio of males was more than the female ticks.conclusion:hyalomma and rhipicephalus species are commonly distributed in the study area . 
 further investigations are needed to identify the role of above tick species as vectors of pathogenic organisms . 
Introduction
Materials and Methods
Results
Discussion
Conclusion