September 10, 2007

Research sheds light on new way to control poultry mites

A researcher in the Newcastle University, has presented research to show that a way to neutralise blood-sucking poultry mites may be to target the bacteria living on them.

Dr Sparagano presented the paper last week at a Meeting of the Society for General Microbiology at the University of Edinburgh.

The red poultry mite causes losses of about EUR 130 million per year on EU's poultry industry due to the blood spotting it causes on eggs, making them unfit for sale.

The birds can become badly anaemic or get infections and viruses which could be passed on to humans.

Red poultry mites are also suspected of passing on diseases like Newcastle Disease and salmonella.

There is an urgent need to develop new ways to fight such pests due to the dangers posed by bird flu and the growing and widespread resistance to chemicals these bacteria have, said Dr Olivier Sparagano from Newcastle University, UK.

These bacteria benefit their hosts and if there is some way that the relationship could be destabilized, there may be a way to reduce pathogen levels, he said.

If successful, the use of acaricide chemicals, currently being used to kill the bacteria, could be cut and thus limit the impact on the environment and on people, he added.