We are pleased to announce a new article on Featured Creatures!

Take a sneak peek with this excerpt from the article: The chicken mite, Dermanyssus gallinae (De Geer) (Fig. 1), is a parasitic poultry mite that is widely distributed. Despite its common names (poultry red mite and roost mite), Dermanyssus gallinae has a large range of hosts including several species of wild birds and mammals (Sparagano et al. 2014). In both size and appearance, it resembles the northern fowl mite, Ornithonyssus sylviarum (Canestrini and Fanzago), which is abundant in the United States (Chauve 1998). Chicken mites hide in nests, cracks, crevices, and litter when they are not feeding.

Figure 1. Adult chicken mite, Dermanyssus gallinae (De Geer). Photograph by Lyle J. Buss, University of Florida.

Available at: http://entnemdept.ufl.edu/creatures/livestock/poultry/chicken_mite.htm

Authors: Ethan Carter and Jennifer L. Gillett-Kaufman, University of Florida

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