In vitro, off-host, rearing of the poultry red mite to supply parasites for development of new control methods

鸡舍被家禽红螨侵染是国际上鸡蛋生产行业的一个主要动物福利和经济问题，世界各地的多个团体都在开发这种寄生虫的新控制方法。家禽红螨是一种寄生虫，需要以鸟类的血液为食才能生存，发育和繁殖。为了向任何研究项目提供螨类，必须用寄生虫感染供体母鸡，以便为随后的实验室或田间研究提供足够数量的螨类。当前提案的目的是通过建立实验室螨群来取代使用螨感染的母鸡作为寄生虫材料的来源，使用我们小组设计的新型饲养方法，该方法对于螨的常规培养是可持续的，并且可以在需要时扩大规模以生产试验所需的大量螨。通过实验室的一系列初步实验，我们已经确定了家禽红螨将通过一次性合成类皮肤膜以鹅血为食。血液是由活鹅捐赠的，活鹅在一个专门的献血者群中以非常高的福利标准饲养。鹅特别适合成为这项任务的献血者，因为它们可以提供比母鸡更多的血液（单次献血约为母鸡的30倍）。我们已经计算出，通过使用该系统，我们可以每年减少90%用于维持家禽红螨的母鸡数量，此外，通过消除母鸡长时间持续感染寄生虫的需要，提高福利标准。通过以下一系列的3个目标，我们将优化该系统的常规螨培养和扩大规模的大量螨需要更大的研究：目标1将建立最佳条件储存鹅血和家禽红螨对这种血液的喂养;目标2将确定是否实验室饲养螨的行为方式相同，现场捕捉螨暴露于母鸡;目标3将优化螨的饲养和喂养，以持续扩大菌落数量。

Infestation of hen houses with poultry red mites is a major animal welfare and economic problem for the egg-producing industry internationally and multiple groups worldwide are engaged in the development of new control methods for this parasite. Poultry red mites are parasites which need to feed on a bird's blood to survive, develop and reproduce. To supply mites for any research programme, donor hens must be infested with the parasite to provide sufficient numbers of mites for subsequent laboratory or field studies. The aim of the current proposal is to replace the use of mite-infested hens as a source of parasite material by establishing a laboratory colony of mites, using a novel feeding method designed in our group, which is both sustainable for the routine culturing of mites and can be scaled-up for the production of the large numbers of mites required for trials when required. Through a series of preliminary experiments in our laboratory, we have established that poultry red mites will feed on goose blood through a disposable synthetic skin-like membrane. The blood is donated by live geese maintained under very high welfare standards in a dedicated blood-donor flock. Geese are particularly suited to be blood donors for this task as they can supply a much greater volume of blood than hens (approximately 30 times as much in a single donation). We have calculated that, by using this system, we could reduce the number of hens used for the maintenance of poultry red mites by 90% per year and, in addition, increase welfare standards by removing the need for hens to be continuously infested with the parasites for prolonged periods. By following a series of 3 Objectives we will optimise this system for routine mite culturing and scaling up for large numbers of mites required for larger studies:Objective 1 will establish the optimal conditions for storing goose blood and for feeding poultry red mites on this blood;Objective 2 will determine if lab-reared mites behave in the same way as field-caught mites when exposed to a hen;Objective 3 will optimise mite housing and feeding for sustainable expansion of colony numbers.