NC3Rs funds study of red mite infestations in poultry

Scientists at the Moredun Research Institute want to develop a new method to study poultry red mites that uses fewer hens than previous approaches.

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Scientists at the U.K.'s Moredun Research Institute want to develop a new method to study poultry red mites that uses fewer hens than previous approaches.

“Because these parasites only eat blood, there is no adequate artificial rearing system for them to provide us with the mites that we need for our research,” said Francesca Nunn and Alasdair Nisbet, leaders of the research.

“Right now, some groups raise mites by experimentally infesting hens or, as is the case in our group, they are collected from commercial premises. The former method may produce a welfare issue for the experimental birds and the latter can be limited in parasite supply and have issues in biological variability of the parasites.”

The research is funded by a £483,000 (US$630,972) grant from the National Centre for the Replacement, Refinement and Reduction of Animals in Research (NC3Rs), which aims to help the research community reduce and replace the number of animals used in studies.

Costly welfare issue

Red mite infestations are a major animal welfare and economic issue for the poultry industry, particularly among egg-producers. More than 80% of European poultry farms are infested with poultry red mites, according to estimates from Wagengen University & Research. Infestations are more likely in cage-free environments.

Birds exposed to red mites display increased feather-pecking, restlessness, irritation and even aggression towards other chickens. In infested houses, the mites crawl onto the egg conveyer belts, where they are crushed and cause blood spots on the eggs. In humans, red mites can cause itchiness and dermatitis.

“Surprisingly little is known about red mite biology when compared to other agricultural pests in other sectors. Anything and everything we can learn about them can potentially help us – whether it be information on population dynamics that could be useful in integrated pest management control programs or biological data that could lead to potential vaccines for example,” Nunn and Nisbet said.

A different approach

Typical red mite studies rely on donor hens infested with the parasite to give the researchers a large quantity of the mites to study.

However, the Moredun research team have established that red mites will also feed on goose blood. Fewer geese will be required for each trial because they can supply 30 times more blood per donation than hens, which could reduce the number of hens used for the maintenance of red mites by 90% each year.

“The main objective of our previous projects has been to develop new mite control options. This current NC3Rs-funded work will allow us to develop more sophisticated tools to re-address the development of control methods in a much more standardized manner,” explained Nunn and Nisbet.

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