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

禽类红蜘蛛对鸡舍的侵袭是国际上蛋业面临的重大动物福利和经济问题，世界各地的多个组织正在致力于开发这种寄生虫的新的控制方法。家禽红蜘蛛是一种寄生虫，需要以鸟类的血液为食才能生存、发育和繁殖。要为任何研究计划提供螨类，捐献母鸡必须感染寄生虫，以便为随后的实验室或田间研究提供足够数量的螨类。目前这项建议的目的是通过建立一个由我们小组设计的新的喂养方法，通过建立一个实验室的螨类群体来取代被蠕虫感染的母鸡作为寄生虫材料的来源，这种方法既可持续地进行常规的螨类培养，又可以在需要时扩大规模，以生产试验所需的大量蠕虫。通过我们实验室的一系列初步实验，我们已经确定，家禽红蜘蛛将通过一次性合成的皮样膜来摄取鹅血。血液是由活鹅捐献的，这些活鹅在一个专门的献血者群体中保持着非常高的福利标准。鹅特别适合作为献血者，因为它们可以提供比母鸡多得多的血量(一次献血大约是母鸡的30倍)。我们计算过，使用这个系统，我们每年可以减少90%用于饲养家禽红蜘蛛的母鸡数量，此外，通过消除母鸡长期感染这种寄生虫的需要，还可以提高福利标准。通过遵循一系列三个目标，我们将优化这一系统，以进行常规的螨类培养，并扩大大型研究所需的大量螨类的规模：目标1将建立储存鹅血和用这种血液喂养家禽红蜘蛛的最佳条件；目标2将确定实验室饲养的螨类在暴露于母鸡时是否表现出与野外捕获的螨类相同的行为；目标3将优化螨类的栖息地和饲养，以实现群体数量的可持续扩展。

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.