Veterinary case
Millions of red mites invade a laying hen flock
⚠️ This information is provided for awareness only and does not replace an examination by a veterinarian.
🤖 Summary produced automatically from the scientific publication cited at the bottom of the page.
A laying hen farm overrun by millions of red mites achieved a mite-free barn for more than two years thanks to a combined strategy.
What happened?
At an experimental poultry station in Germany, a flock of 340 laying hens had been floor-housed since February 2020. Regular mite monitoring with cardboard tube traps showed a sharp rise in poultry red mites during the warm months. In June 2020, counts revealed a massive infestation, averaging over 18,500 mites per trap, with some traps holding more than 82,000 mites.
What did the vet find?
Veterinarians found a very severe infestation using traps placed under perches and nests: more than 743,000 red mites were counted in a single session across 40 traps. This parasite feeds on hens' blood at night and can cause anaemia, reduced egg laying, and even death in severe cases. The high June temperatures favoured rapid mite multiplication.
What did the vet do?
ℹ️ Treatment given to THIS animal, decided by its veterinarian. It is not a prescription: never apply it without veterinary advice.
Facing this massive infestation, the veterinarian treated the hens with an acaricidal medicine given in the drinking water, in two doses seven days apart. Two weeks after the second dose, mite numbers had dropped by 99.8%. Once the hens left, the barn was dry-cleaned then wet-cleaned, disinfected twice, and finally coated with a preventive silica powder before the new flock arrived.
What happened next?
After treatment, the barn was completely emptied, cleaned, disinfected and then preventively treated with a silica product before each new flock was introduced. Over more than two years and two consecutive housing periods, no poultry red mite was detected, either in traps or by visual inspection.
Advice for the farmer
Thorough cleaning of the barn between flocks, followed by disinfection and a preventive application of silica powder, can stop red mites coming back without repeating chemical treatments.
Source
- Source
- PubMed Central
- Title
- Successful long-term control of poultry red mite (Dermanyssus gallinae) infestations in floor-kept laying hens via integrated pest management-a case report.
- Authors
- Rüster V, Lückemann AK, Wittmann M, Strube C, Bartels T.
- Year
- 2023
- DOI
- 10.1007/s00436-023-07954-9
- Licence
- CC BY
