Tropical or Northern Fowl mite - Ornithonyssus sylviarum

Moved

… Jim McClarin, 6 March, 2007 - 11:35am

Another expert opinion

I asked Macronyssidae specialist Dr. Frank Radovsky at Oregon State University if he could tell from these photos which species of Ornithonyssus this is. His response:

In a word, "no." I would have to see the tip of the dorsal shield in the adults or the pygidial shield in the protonymph. O. bursa has 4 pairs of setae there, O sylviarum no more than 3. The magnification here is just too low. I would say that if the mites are thickest around the vent of the chickens, it is probably O. sylviarum.

Frank Radovsky

… Jim McClarin, 3 March, 2007 - 5:58pm

Jim,

These are found around the vent, they make clumps surrounding the feathers, if left on the birds, the skin around the vent gets red and can get scabs, I am sure not very comfortable for the poor bird. Thanks again to you and your contacts for the help.

… Machele White, 6 March, 2007 - 7:22am

Great!

I'll place this on a species page as (probably) O. sylviarum.

… Jim McClarin, 6 March, 2007 - 11:34am

Moved

Moved from Mesostigmata.

… Jim McClarin, 3 March, 2007 - 12:39pm

Moved

Moved from Mites and Ticks.

… Jim McClarin, 3 March, 2007 - 9:17am

Dr. Heather Proctor (water & feather mite specialist) says:

the excellent posted photos are not feather mites, but rather parasitic blood-feeding mesostigmatans. As the photographer says, the most likely i.d. is Ornithonyssus bursa or O. sylviarum (Family Macronyssidae), but there is also the possibility that they are Dermanyssus gallinae (Family Dermanyssidae).

… Jim McClarin, 3 March, 2007 - 9:16am

Thank you Jim,

I don't believe they are Dermanyssus gallinae, only for the fact that these mites stay on the host day and night, I have read that D. gallinae are only on the host during the night, then hide in cracks and crevices during the day. Thank you again for your work on these.

… Machele White, 3 March, 2007 - 10:13am

In that case

we might as well move these to genus level.

… Jim McClarin, 3 March, 2007 - 12:31pm

These guys are all in the same uniform.

I think it's rare to see mites with such distinct color patterns.

… Jim McClarin, 2 March, 2007 - 7:21pm

Good Enough to Alert Me to...............

.... stay away from that foul coop :-) eeewwww! itch.

… Bob Patterson, 2 March, 2007 - 7:57am