Infestation of Tropical Fowl Mites and Feather mites in Layer poultry farm in Kuningan, West Java

Abstract

Poultry is a domesticated animal that are using for meat, eggs and their feathers for human purposes. The problem that often found in the poultry is the presence of ectoparasites such as ticks, fleas, mites and louse on their body. The aim for this study is identify and estimate the prevalence of ectoparasites on layers in several poultry farms in Kuningan, West Java. Total of 80 layer hens were randomly selected from different four layer farms as sample for mite’s collection without consideration for age. The mites were collected from 5 different regions of hen at head and neck, wings, thorax and abdomen, tail and legs. The result shows that 70 out of 80 layer hen had been infested by mites. Total of 1842 mites had been found in 70 infested layer hens. Farm 4 had the highest prevalence of mites which is 100% and the least prevalence with 60% is found in farm 3. Prevalence of mite’s infestation that occurs on layer hen in Kuningan is around 87.5%. Type of mites that had been found consists of two species which are Ornithonyssus bursa (3.80%) and Megninia ginglymura (96.20%). Thorax and abdomen are recorded as highest infestation of mites with 30.35%. Type of mites that dominates in this study is Megninia ginglymura in thorax and abdomen region (29.42%) and least dominate region is wings (10.26%).