2.2. Hard tick collection and identification

Ticks were randomly collected from small ruminant herds including goats (505/994; 50.8%) and sheep (489/994; 49.2%) older and younger than 1 year. The whole body of each of animal was examined for the presence of ticks especially ears and neck. The found ticks were gently removed by a fine‐tipped bent tweezer from as close to the animal skin as possible to avoid samples damage. The removed tick samples were placed in tubes containing 80% ethanol for later examination and identification. The tubes containing tick samples were marked to indicate the date and place of their collection as well as the type and age of harbouring hosts. Adult ticks were then morphologically identified at the species level using standard classification keys before being kept at −20°C (Aktas, 2014; Li et al., 2020; M'ghirbi et al., 2013).