in vitro effect of the ethanolic extract of tephrosia vogelii on rhipicephalus sanguineus in abomey-calavi

objectives: ticks are vectors of several diseases, of which many are zoonosis transmissible to humans. the use of tephrosia leafs’ extract as a low cost acaricide is spreading among farmers in central kenya. materials and methods: the present study’s aim is to inventory endogenous control methods against dogs’ ticks among which rhipicephalus sanguineus, in the municipality of abomey-calavi. from september to october 2013, a survey was made on forty randomly selected breeders and ticks samples were collected on forty dogs. the web platform, www.epicollect.net, was used for the survey. in total, 77.5% (n=40) of examined dogs were infested with ticks results: three species of ticks were identified: rhipicephalus sanguineus, haemaphysalis leachi, and amblyomma variegatum. they were found on 77.5%, 17.5%, and 15% of examined dogs, respectively. the numerical abundance of the three species was 87.06%, 11.9%, and 1.03%, respectively. the average number of ticks per animal was 16.83±5.04, 2.3±1.64, and 0.2±0.08 for rhipicephalus sanguineus, haemaphysalis leachi, and amblyomma variegatum, respectively. farmers used manual diptank (67.5%), plant ash (37.5%), petroleum (12.5%), motor oil (2.50 %), and sea water (7.5%) to fight against ticks. conclusions: the phytochemical screening of the leafy stem’s powder of tephrosia vogelii revealed the presence of catechol tannins, saponins, sugars, leuco-anthocyanins, polyterpenes, and sterols. a 100% larval mortality was observed at the concentration of 20% the ethanolic extract of the leafy stem of tephrosia vogelii. the lc50 of this ethanolic extract against rhipicephalus sanguineus larvae was equal to 2.6%.