Abstract
BackgroundThe poultry red mite (PRM), Dermanyssus gallinae, is one of the most economically deleterious threats to laying-hen industry worldwide. Macrocyclic lactones (MLs) have been widely used in control of mites in mammals, but the effects of MLs on PRMs are not well studied. The main objective of the present study was to systematically evaluate the effects of three MLs, i.e. eprinomectin (EPR), moxidectin (MOX) or ivermectin (IVM), on PRMs fed on chicks following oral administration.MethodsChicks in treatment groups were orally administrated with EPR, MOX or IVM at a dose of 5.0 mg/kg bodyweight. Chicks in the control group received the carrier solvent without drug. Chicks in each cage were then infested with 200 starved adult D. gallinae. After infestation and feeding for 12 h, engorged mites were collected to evaluate the acaricidal efficacy of the MLs, and its impacts on the reproduction and blood-meal digestion of D. gallinae.ResultsMOX, IVM and EPR demonstrated higher acaricidal efficacies post-treatment compared with the control, i.e. 45.60% for MOX, 71.32% for IVM and 100% for EPR on Day 10. MLs did not have significant effects on the blood-meal ingestion of PRMs, but significantly slowed down blood digestion (P < 0.0001). The oviposition rate, egg hatching rate and fecundity of PRMs in treatment groups were remarkably reduced. Among the three MLs, EPR exhibited the highest performance against PRMs, with an oviposition rate of 1.04%, fecundity of 0.33 eggs per mite and a zero egg hatching rate in EPR treated groups.ConclusionsEPR, MOX or IVM administrated orally to chicks increased the mortality of D. gallinae, significantly slowed down their blood-meal digestion and significantly reduced their reproductive capability which included the oviposition rate, fecundity and egg hatching rate. The present study highlights the potential of MLs in the control of PRMs.
Highlights
The poultry red mite (PRM), Dermanyssus gallinae, is one of the most economically deleterious threats to laying-hen industry worldwide
Poultry red mites are very resistant to desiccation and starvation, enabling them to survive up to eight months without feeding on a host [1]; as a consequence, remaining D. gallinae can continuously multiply and build up a population over many production cycles, which often makes a one-time treatment of poultry houses against D. gallinae challenging
The storage boxes with chicks were placed in an artificial climate incubator (RXZ-500B-LED, Ningbo Jiangnan Instrument Factory, Ningbo, China), with 30 ± 2 °C and 75 ± 2% relative humidity (RH), and light was provided by the incubator with a light intensity of approximately 3600 lux with a 12:12 h (L:D) photoperiod [33]
Summary
The poultry red mite (PRM), Dermanyssus gallinae, is one of the most economically deleterious threats to laying-hen industry worldwide. Dermanyssus gallinae, the poultry red mite (PRM), is a significant threat to laying hens in many parts of the world, including Europe, Japan and China [1,2,3]. This nocturnal hematophagous ectoparasite has a rapid rate of proliferation with a negative impact on the birds’ health, welfare and productivity, as well as the egg quality, resulting in severe economic loss [1, 4, 5]. There is an urgent need for an effective method of controlling D. gallinae
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