Written collaboratively by Adam Varenhorst, Patrick Wagner, Philip Rozeboom, Bradley McManus, Jaelyn Whaley, and Russ Daly.
Although sometimes referred to as the sheep tick due to their activity and lifecycle, sheep keds, Melophagus ovinus (L.) (Diptera: Hippoboscidae), are parasitic flies. Both the male and female sheep keds are blood feeding parasites that can infest sheep and cause direct and indirect health problems (Small 2005). Although sheep keds originated from the Palearctic biogeographical realm, an area that includes Europe, Asia, and North Africa, they are now established in most sheep rearing areas in the world due to human movement of sheep, including South Dakota (Kettle 1984, Kantach and Thompson 1986, Small 2005).
