Ticks in chickens: how to deal with the disease, preventive measures

ticks how to fight
Ticks in chickens how to fight

Good day. I decided to make myself an omelet last, but there were no eggs in the refrigerator.

I had to stomp to a neighbor for eggs. But this option did not work. The chickens of the neighbor began to carry much less eggs, and they began to behave strangely.

A quick inspection revealed a problem: many chickens had ticks. I faced such a problem a couple of years ago, so I told my neighbor what to do. Want to learn how to deal with ticks in chickens? Now I will tell you about the most effective means.

How to get rid of a chicken tick: control and prevention measures

Decreased productivity, slowed growth and pestilence of young animals - these problems are caused by the chicken tick to the owner of the house. Contrary to popular belief that parasites are most active in May and June - after hibernation - veterinarians say otherwise, pests are dangerous for six months. And prevention, along with inspection of the house should be your habit.

Why are parasites in the house dangerous?

The red chicken tick was named because of the color of the body, it is referred to as blood-sucking parasites. It is a carrier of bird plague, borreliosis, cholera and a number of other infectious diseases.

The optimal habitat for the tick is the litter of raw houses, poorly ventilated rooms. When examining a chicken coop, it is not so difficult to detect it, since there are symptoms indicating unhealthy birds.

Important!
Parasite-affected layers reduce egg production, but consume more food, and chicks grow more slowly. Sometimes ticks settle in nests, birds may refuse to lay eggs there. Another sign is the crests and catkins that are pale due to blood loss. If you do not take measures to combat parasites, then the birds die.

Before searching, find out what chicken ticks look like (see photo). Adult individuals reach a length of about 0.7 mm, have a flat dark red body, after drinking blood, they turn purple. The female is able to lay up to 20 eggs.

They breed from May to October (especially active in the warmer months and after prolonged rains), are able to do without food for up to 6 months, while in hibernation.

In order to get rid of ticks in chickens, inspect the entire house. Walk a white sheet of paper through all the cracks and uneven places on the walls and floors. It is enough to tap lightly on the gap, and if parasites are present, small dark gray dots will appear on the paper.

Red Chicken Mite Control Methods

In order to cure chickens of ticks, bite sites are lubricated with oil, after a couple of days the parasite dies. The wounds are disinfected and treated with a healing ointment. It is important to clean the house, and after processing the chickens temporarily relocated to another place.

There are several options for how to effectively get rid of chicken mites in the chicken coop. We have collected the most effective.

Birds are treated with any permitted insecticides.The procedure is carried out twice, observing the weekly interval. Powders “Sevin” (per bird no more than 15 g) and “Pyrethrum” (made on the basis of chamomile flowers) are used, as well as a new generation insecticide “Ecoflis”. Powders need to spill feathers, and spray birds and the chicken coop with aerosols.

Good reviews for the spray with EU permethrin: birds and the room are sprayed with a 0.005% solution, the protection is valid for 9 weeks.

A proven method for fighting chicken mites is a mixture of sand and ash. Having poured it into basins, they leave it in the poultry yard so that the birds flounder in them. To our ancestors, wood ash served as an analogue of washing powder. The contents of the pots should be changed. The procedure is repeated after 14 days. The mixture should not get wet.

Advice!
An effective method for treating chicken mites is the treatment of floors and walls with boiling water, a blowtorch or flame is also recommended.

Get rid of old things if possible. Replace wooden perches; ticks become clogged in micro crevices; removing them from there is extremely problematic.
Quartz lamps are considered the best method of prevention. They are used at poultry farms.

Preparations containing chlorinated hydrocarbon are banned from chicken ticks, since the active substance accumulates in eggs and meat.

In addition to quartzization and special preparations, farmers often use plants that are not liked by ticks. The parasites are scared away by the fragrant leaves of mint, parsley, feathers of onions, garlic, celery. They are laid out in the corners of the chicken coop. We add that the sprays and aerosols listed in the article are used only after consulting a veterinarian.

Prevention in chicken coops

The primary measures for controlling ticks are regular inspection of birds from late spring to early fall. We need timely cleaning of the litter, replacing the old litter, do not forget to sweep the cobwebs and pour over the drinking bowls and feeders with boiling water, cleaning them. Place for walking sprinkled with sand and kept dry. They recommend placing it in a well-lit place.

It is optimal to carry out disinfection once every 30 days. Preventive measures include the use of a mixture of sand and ash described above.

You need to check all the packaging delivered from another farm. In metal cages for collecting eggs, there is a vulnerability - these are plastic pads. They must be washed with a cleaning agent and hot water. Veterinarians agree that regular prophylaxis is easier than fighting chicken mites.

An important role is played by the type of chicken keeping. In poultry houses with a cellular content, ticks are less common. There is less space and there are no the same roosts covered with droppings, where it is convenient for parasites to complete the life cycle.

However, reducing the bird landing area, you do not solve the problem with the northern chicken tick, which completes the life cycle on the chicken body.

Parasites affecting the legs and feathers of chickens

We touch on two other parasites that affect chickens: these are feather and acariform chicken mites. The first species settles on the pen shaft and in the hole, feeds on circulating blood. This leads to the destruction of the pen. Over time, the bird can remain completely naked. Unfortunately, there is no effective treatment for feather ticks in chickens.

Attention!
Another parasite that often attacks chickens is acariform mites, which lead to knemidocoptosis; the disease is also called the “calcareous leg”. Roosters are more susceptible to this disease than chickens. Ticks can be noticed when the stratum corneum of the skin becomes thicker on the legs, and the phalanges are covered with a gray coating.

Over time, the deformation of the limbs increases. To treat a tick on the legs of chickens, birch tar is used, which treats the infected surface of the body with an interval of 6 days. As an alternative, acaricidal drugs are suitable, they also need to be rubbed into the legs.

Prevention for people

A chicken mite found on a person’s body will resemble a small lump of dirt adhering to the skin, most often on the leg.If you brush away the “lump”, there will be bite marks.

Frequent tick bites can cause allergies or dermatitis, so precautions are needed not only for birds, but also for people who work in the chicken coop.

Care of hens is done in special clothes (rubber boots, tight pants). Do not neglect workwear, even if you go into the chicken coop for a few minutes.

It is easier and more effective to act on anticipation than to remove chicken ticks, especially since it is extremely difficult to get rid of some parasites. Do not neglect such simple but effective measures as regular inspection of chickens and the house itself, cleaning the room.

Chicken mite - the worst enemy of poultry

Like many other pets, chickens are also often bothered. These parasites are active at night and cause great discomfort to the birds. Moreover, they weaken the immunity of laying hens, reduce their productivity and slow down the growth of chicks.

Description

Chicken tick is a special type of blood-sucking parasites that settle on the body of poultry and live in hens. They are quite dangerous, as they are not only carriers of infections (especially encephalitis), but also worsen the health of laying hens.

Important!
These mites look like the other types of parasites, have a small body - 0.75 mm and live in all areas of our country, except the North.

As we have said, ticks are parasites, so they need the blood of the victim. The chicken species is particularly well developed in wet, dirty and poorly ventilated houses.

In large quantities, he lives in the litter, and not on the body of a laying hen, and can even attack a person. Their bite causes severe itching due to the special poison that the tick injects into the wound to prevent the rapid coagulation of blood.

With parasite bites, small wounds with traces of blood appear on the body of the chicken. The bird feels discomfort and nervousness, since due to its structure it cannot scratch the place of itching. The attack of these parasites is especially susceptible to young birds, as well as chickens. That is why they need special room hygiene and special regular treatment.

How to identify a parasite?

Chicken mites are easy to spot with the naked eye. If you saw that the egg production of your laying hens has decreased dramatically, it is worth doing an inspection of each bird and the chicken house itself.

The danger of this parasite also lies in the fact that it affects not only the upper layers of the skin, but also, for example, ears, trachea, and larynx. Because of this, the bird begins to shake its head, cough, wheeze.

Since the chicken parasite does not live on the body of the bird, it is possible to see it in large quantities only in the house itself.

To do this, take a white piece of paper and go with it where there are any gaps, bumps. If small gray dots remain on the paper, these are ticks. In a warm and dry hen house, they can be active, and you will see their movement. In winter, they move, for example, near the heat of a light bulb.

Methods of struggle

So, if you have already found ticks on your layers and in the chicken coop, you should immediately take measures to get rid of them.

Advice!
As for the birds themselves, each chicken must be carefully examined, especially the places under the wings and on the neck, where there is thin skin and soft feathers.
If you saw parasites on the body, you should lubricate the bite sites with oil. After a few days, the tick will die.

Small wounds should be treated with a disinfectant and lubricated with a healing ointment. But this is only the beginning, because the main work needs to be done in the room itself.

So, first of all, it is important to clean the henhouse of all the dirt and temporarily move the birds to another place. The surest solution to remove ticks is heat treatment.

You can use cool boiling water and treat it with all the walls, the floor, but it is better to use a blowtorch or just a flame. It is necessary to burn the whole room, also throw away all the old and, if possible, make new perches.This is important if they are wooden, as parasites can remain in the cracks.

Also, for prevention, from time to time, the premises of chickens can be sprayed with diesel fuel, and the walls and floor should be greased with white lime.

You can treat the room with a special drug - ecoflis, but it is not enough for a long time, and it is advisable to repeat the procedure after 15 days. By the way, you can also spray the bird itself with it. Chickens are well treated with Sevin powder or feverfew.

There is another very effective way to fight - ash. In this case, the method is very simple, since the chickens themselves will take preventive baths. To do this, put a trough with a mixture of ash and sand in equal proportions on a walking platform or in an aviary. Just make sure the mixture is dry and not exposed to rain.

Large poultry farms use special quartz lamps that protect chickens from ticks and other parasites. If you have the opportunity to do this in your own house, do not waste time and energy - this is the best modern way to deal with ticks.

Ticks in chickens - prevention and treatment with natural remedies

Ticks are tiny parasites crawling along the surface of the skin. They will become a real problem if you get birds in your chicken coop. Sick chickens, as well as wild birds and rodents, can be sources of infection.

Attention!
In addition, ticks can catch on shoes or clothing, and thus fall into the chicken coop. These parasites are active in the warm season, especially in summer, but some species can survive in cold climates.

Although the life cycle of ticks is very short - only 5-7 days, during this time each parasite can lay more than 100,000 eggs. Therefore, for the complete recovery of animals, treatment courses must be repeated for some time.

Signs of occurrence

Ticks can be found in different places. Some of them live permanently on the body of birds, while others live in the chicken coop: during the day they hide under perches, in cracks on the walls and under the bedding, and at night they leave their shelters to feed themselves.

Parasites bite the skin and suck blood. This can lead not only to discomfort, but also to feather loss, anemia, and in some cases even to death of birds.

If your chickens suddenly began to reluctantly go into the chicken house in the evening, or stopped using nesting places, this is a sure sign that they have ticks.

Chickens love to take dust baths on dry ground or sand. If you add a little wood ash or diatomaceous earth (it is sold in packages), this will be a good prevention of tick infection.

However, often in very hot and humid areas, where the tick population is flourishing, or during prolonged rains, when chickens are not able to take dust baths, this method still does not help to escape from parasites.

Too frequent cleaning of plumage and plucking of feathers can be a sign of infection with parasites.

Important!
If your chickens have mites, you will probably notice that they began to clean their plumage more often and pluck feathers under the wings and around the anus.

On closer inspection, you will be able to see tiny red or black spots near the anus, and when examining the chicken coop, you will find perched red streaks of blood or black grains that are felt when you hold your hand on the surface.

Tick ​​Control Methods

Several chemical solutions and tick control preparations are available on the market, but most of them have not been tested on chickens, so experienced owners do not recommend immediately resorting to their use. It is better to try complex treatment with natural remedies first.

Spray the chicken coop and perches for several days in a row with a mixture of the following composition: 2 cups of water, 1 cup of vegetable oil and 1 tablespoon of dishwashing liquid. This mixture will help destroy ticks.Before use, shake the product well, so it exfoliates.

Processing the chicken coop should be carried out at least 1-2 times a week for several weeks in parallel with the treatment of chickens. This 100% natural homemade spray will help get rid of ticks in the chicken coop.

You can spray a layer of diatomaceous earth on the floor of the chicken coop and nesting places, as well as rub the mixture into the surface of the roosts. Repeat as necessary.

Wormwood (artemisia) is another effective natural means of combating ticks. Tie bunches of wormwood to perches, spread the sachets in the nesting places or hang cut plants throughout the chicken coop. This is an excellent tool that can constantly be used to repel ticks.

To cure chickens, spray them with garlic juice spray. Poultry scientists from the UK have discovered that this tool can kill 100% of all ticks in 24 hours. It can be used to treat birds and as a prophylactic.

To make such a natural spray, you will need:

  • 300 ml of water
  • 30 ml garlic juice
  • 1 teaspoon (total) of any combination of these essential oils - bay leaves, cinnamon, cloves, coriander, lavender, mint and / or caraway seeds.

Mix all the ingredients in a bottle with a sprayer well and spray chickens with this agent twice a week for prophylaxis, or every other day for 2-3 weeks in case of infection with ticks. Pay particular attention to the areas around the anus and under the wings.

Advice!
After spraying, it is also recommended to treat the chickens with diatomaceous earth, rubbing the powder into the skin and plumage. In this case, be careful - try so that the dust does not get them (or you) in the eyes and lungs. The simultaneous treatment of chickens and the treatment of the chicken coop will help completely get rid of ticks.

Ticks on paws are another type of external parasite that hides under the scales, from which they rise.

If you notice such signs, spray chicken paws with a solution of garlic juice, and then grease them with natural petroleum jelly (or its analogues with natural additives). Such treatment will help not only scare off, but also destroy ticks - they will die from suffocation.

Iron-rich foods to help treat mites infected with ticks
Iron-rich foods to help treat mites infected with ticks

When treating tick-infected chickens, it is recommended to increase iron intake in order to prevent anemia.

High iron foods include eggs, meat, fish, poultry, seafood, spinach, beet tops, dandelion greens, sweet potatoes, broccoli, kale, kale, strawberries, watermelon, raisins, wheat products, oatmeal, corn, molasses.

The introduction of these products in the diet of chickens will contribute to a better recovery of weakened birds - when infected, not only the level of iron in the blood decreases, but also weakens the immune system.

Adding a clove of fresh garlic to drinking water or garlic powder in the feed will be a good prevention of infection, as parasites do not like the taste of the blood of those birds in whose diet garlic is present. In addition, this useful product enhances the immunity of sick hens during treatment.

The best prophylaxis for most disease-related problems is to frequently inspect and know what a healthy and sick animal should look like.

Regular, frequent and thorough inspection of chickens will allow you to detect and solve problems before they get out of control. With a careful study of the area under the wings and around the anus, parasites can be caught before they begin to multiply.

Attention!
Detecting the first signs of the disease and quick treatment will help to eliminate ticks before mass infection of birds begins.

Zones for dust baths filled with dry soil or sand, diatomaceous earth and wood ash will also be a good prevention of tick infection for your chickens.

Chicken tick: treatment, prevention

One day a friend of the farmer called me and told me that young chickens, which had just started to hatch, began to worry and lose weight, egg production dropped to almost zero. Some chickens and cockerels constantly wheeze and shake their heads.

Arriving at the poultry farm, I put on a dressing gown, gloves and disposable shoe covers, wrapped my head in clean cloth so that you could only breathe and see.

It was painful to look at the hens: thin, soiled, with anemic-pale scallops and catkins, they wandered around the courtyard effortlessly or stood laughing.

More than once in the warm season, especially after prolonged rains, I had to observe this.

Entering the aviary, I picked up the nearest crested dog and carefully examined the skin under the wings, in the neck and cesspools. Everywhere there was one and the same picture: dark points scattered on the skin between the feathers, similar to adhering large grains of sand.

With tweezers, I carefully transferred several dark “grains of sand” to a sheet torn from a notebook. Through a magnifying glass against a background of white paper, ticks of an elongated-oval shape, about 1 mm in size, were clearly visible. For those smaller, the color was yellowish, for those larger - from reddish to dark red and even purple - so they were pumped with chicken blood.

Advice!
The tick often parasitizes not only on the skin, but also in the larynx and trachea of ​​the bird, which causes dandruff and cough.

Another tick can settle in the ears of the bird, also causing inflammation. Therefore, the bird sometimes shakes his head when he is affected by a chicken tick.

A chicken tick (it is also called a bird or red bird tick) drinks blood, injects poisonous saliva and can spread any infection that is dangerous for both birds and humans.

In case you find a tick, the chicken coop needs to be processed from the inside: the floor, walls, perches and nests. First, it will be necessary to very thoroughly clean the house from droppings, litter, cobwebs - from any dirt. Feeding troughs and drinking bowls also need to be freed from residues of feed and water.

Then with steep boiling water, and even better with a blowtorch or gas burner flame, treat the floor, walls, all cracks, as well as perches.

The bird itself must be treated with feverfew. It is an insect repellent powder, completely harmless to humans and birds. Pyrethrum is sold in medical and veterinary pharmacies.

If pyrethrum does not turn out, you can use other drugs that are also harmless to the bird: 7 percent Sevin powder or ecoflis aerosol preparation. They are sprayed with chickens affected by ticks. And the feathers of the bird are carefully poured with pyrethrum or sevine powder.

If you use Sevin, remember: on one head should not be more than 15 g of powder. Such treatment - both of the house and the chickens themselves - will need to be carried out twice with an interval of 10-15 days.

Attention!
If you forever want to rid the birds of the tick, inspect them often.

On walking grounds, be sure to place spacious troughs with a mixture of ash and sand. Mix wood ash and finely sifted dry sand in equal parts and put into troughs with a layer of at least 20 cm. Hens willingly bathe in such a mixture, freeing themselves from parasites. The mixture must always remain dry.

In addition, in the warm season, it is advisable to spray the chicken coop from the inside with diesel fuel or waste machine oil. This treatment is carried out 2-3 times during the summer.

Some odorous plants repel the tick well: mint leaves, parsley, celery, onion and garlic feathers. It also helps potato or tomato tops, spread on the floor of the house.

Chicken mites and methods of dealing with them

Sometimes the owner of a chicken farm has to deal with a problem such as a chicken tick. This misfortune gives a lot of trouble to the bird and, accordingly, to its owner. Getting rid of intruders is not so easy.

Who are they?

Chicken tick is a blood-sucking species of parasite that settles on the body of a bird, as well as in a chicken coop.By its presence, the parasite gives the bird a lot of discomfort. The body of the tick has an elongated shape and is covered with small hairs, the length of the body is 0.75-1 mm.

The color of the hungry individual is light yellow, then, as it is saturated with blood, the parasite acquires a red color, and then yellow-brown. Because of this, the parasite is also called the red chicken tick. The tick feeds on chicken blood, which causes considerable harm to the health of the bird.

In a bitten bird, activity decreases, its egg production sharply decreases, and cases of anemia can be observed. The bird can become so weak that jumping to perch will become a real problem for it.

In addition, ticks can become carriers of infections, especially encephalitis, ornithosis, bird plague, and cholera should be especially wary.

Ticks spread quickly around the chicken coop and can attack humans. Especially often outbreaks of tick-borne activity are observed in the warm and humid seasons, since the ripening of parasite eggs requires a temperature of up to 25 ° C. Parasites are common on all continents.

Signs of bird infection

Unfortunately, the owner can not immediately notice the appearance of a dangerous parasite in the chicken coop, because they are active mainly at night. Ticks leave small wounds on the bird’s body, biting the prey, they inject a special poison into it that causes severe itching and discomfort.

Important!
If you notice, along with the nervousness of your bird, a drop in egg production, you must urgently conduct a thorough audit of your chicken coop in order to detect a dangerous parasite.

In addition to the fact that ticks drink chicken blood, they can also settle in the larynx and trachea of ​​the bird, but they rarely bite their feet by the legs, because the skin there is quite hard for them. In a particularly massive attack, they penetrate the nasal cavity, clog the larynx, their bites cause severe pain to the birds. Hens begin to breathe heavily and cough.

In addition, the parasite can penetrate the ear holes, because of this, the sick bird begins to shake its head hard to get rid of the tick, and with its feet it tries to get to the place of the bite and scratch it. When examining a chicken, special attention should be paid to the skin under the wings, on the neck and in the area of ​​the cloaca - the skin in these places is the most delicate and often ticks can bite birds there.

If you suspect that ticks have settled in your chicken coop, the fact that chickens refuse to return to the chicken coop in the evening should alert you. This is due to the fact that a greater number of parasites are there and, returning to the room in the evening, the hens give in to a particularly strong attack from ticks.

Signs of parasites are also the fact that chickens can stop rushing in their nests, especially if before that they did it only there.

This is explained in a similar way - an increased concentration of parasites can be observed near the nests. Another sign of tick infection may be red spots on the eggs and the pallor of the scallop or bird’s earrings.

Methods for getting rid of parasites

If your suspicions are confirmed and a dangerous parasite is found in your chicken coop, you should take measures to get rid of it immediately.

First you need to process the premises, for this all the inventory from the premises is removed (it will also need to be processed), the chicken coop is thoroughly cleaned of litter and dirt. The walls, corners and ceiling of the house are treated with boiling water.

Advice!
It is very good if you have the opportunity to carry out the treatment with a blowtorch or gas lamp - under the influence of high temperatures the mites and their larvae must die. You also need to process perches and nests, and thoroughly wash the feeders and drinking bowls.

Next, you need to process the birds themselves. For treatment, the powdered drug Pyrethrum is used, it is recognized as harmless to humans and chickens. To combat ticks, Sevin powder is also used (it is better to use a 7% preparation) or Ecoflis aerosol.

Powdery preparations need to be thoroughly sprinkled with feathers of the bird and its legs, and sprayed thoroughly with aerosols. Processing of both the chicken coop and poultry should be carried out twice, with an interval of 10-15 days.

We recommend you to watch the video of the author Roman Belov, which shows with what pleasure the hens bathe in ash!

Do not forget that your birds should constantly have a container of sand and ash on their walk. Chickens are always eager to bathe in such a mixture and thus heal from parasites. Just watch the dryness of such a mixture.

A good prevention and fight against ticks is also the treatment of the walls of the chicken coop with diesel fuel. This should be done in the summer, as the most favorable for the development of a tick colony in your house.

It is also believed that ticks are afraid of some strong smells, so bunches of mint, celery, parsley, garlic or onions hung in the house can be an additional protection!

Chicken mite

Chicken mites are a serious nuisance for people involved in agriculture, and simply for those who contain chickens in their own area. The chicken tick goes hunting at night, during this period the hens sleep soundly and are completely defenseless from the attack of the parasite.

Chicken mite negatively affects the health of animals, the number of eggs delivered decreases, chickens become shy and can often bat on their heads if the parasite sucks in its area. With a large number of ticks, chickens can lose weight. In the photo below you can see the parasite.

What is dangerous for birds

Chicken mite practically does not differ from other representatives of this species, they like damp and dark places, therefore the chicken coop is ideal for their living, and a lot of victims, it contributes to the rapid reproduction of ticks.

Attention!
The bite of one tick is little dangerous to the health of a laying hen, if there are 10 or more parasites, they suck out a lot of blood, which greatly weakens the animal, which leads to diseases and sometimes deaths.

Diseases transmitted by ticks are also a great danger to birds. After parasite bites, an infection such as typhoid, borreliosis, Lyme disease and other dangerous diseases can get into the victim's body.

Photo of a tick on a chicken
Photo of a tick on a chicken

What does a parasite look like

Among the many species of ticks living on birds, the red tick (Dermanyssus Gallinae) stands out especially. This parasite belongs to the family of gamasid ticks, most often it parasitizes on the body of wild and domestic birds. The red tick has small dimensions, not exceeding 0.84 mm, the body is slightly elongated. Males are slightly smaller than females.

The red tick got its name due to the reddish-brown color with white subtle spots on the back. The chicken mite has a powerful blood-sucking apparatus, which allows it to bite through the skin of birds and suck blood without problems, and mites can also be found on the skin of dogs, cats and even people. To move the parasite uses four pairs of legs.

How to fight?

If you notice that something is wrong with your chickens or other birds, you should carefully examine them for parasites. When examining, pay special attention to the areas under the wings, on the head and neck and the tail, these places are the most favorite parasites, because there is delicate skin and it is much easier to bite through.

If you find parasites, you should generously grease them with sunflower oil, after a few hours or days they themselves will disappear. After a few days, check the animals again, and if necessary, repeat the treatment.

But the destruction of parasites on the hens themselves is only the beginning of the fight against ticks. The bulk of the parasites lurks in the barn itself, where hens live, they hide in the boards, straw, and wall crevices.

To begin with, you should bring the animals out of the chicken coop and do the cleaning up. Clean the room of dirt, straw and other debris in which parasites can hide, and burn it.

You can treat the room with special insecticides, and treat the chickens or pigeons themselves with pyrethrum powder.

Important!
To prevent parasites, people spray walls and boards with diesel fuel or boiling water. Brick walls can be burned with a burner, if you do not skip places where parasites hide, these methods show good results in combating parasites.

For the prevention of chicken parasites in the chicken coop, it is recommended to regularly put fresh or dried chamomile, it has an antiparasitic effect and is used in the manufacture of insecticides.

Also, use a mixture of ash and sand, in equal quantities, it is poured into a large toe and placed in a chicken coop. Chickens themselves will be washed in it, and ash will contribute to the destruction of ticks.

Chicken tick preparations

To treat the chicken coop, you can use the following drugs:

  1. Decis;
  2. Extrazole-M;
  3. Ectomine;
  4. Cyperyl.

For greater reliability, treatment should be repeated after a week. Read the instructions carefully before using the drugs and make sure that they are suitable for your case. At the time of processing the premises of the animals should be taken to another place, after processing the room should be ventilated for at least a day.

The following preparations can be used to process the birds themselves:

  • Peretrium;
  • 7% Sevine powder;
  • ecoflis (aerosol preparation).

The listed preparations are harmless to bird health; treatment should be repeated after one and a half weeks.

Symptoms of dermanissiosis and treatment

Poultry farming is a livestock industry that, in spite of various economic upheavals, has been increasing production capacity over the past decade.

This is especially true of both the industrial sector and private households.

Modern industrial poultry farming is faced with a number of insurmountable problems so far, including parasitization on poultry and production capacities of various temporary ectoparasites (ticks from chickens and fleas, bedbugs, etc.).

Red ticks

Red chicken mites Dermanyssus gallinae lead to outbreaks among the livestock of dermanissiosis, which is now ubiquitous, regardless of region.

Poultry farms and private households of both floor and cell-battery methods of keeping poultry suffer from parasitization of chicken ticks. In the latter case, it is much more difficult to carry out a complex of decontamination measures, since the bulk of ectoparasites are localized in places difficult to process, in the corners of technological equipment and cracks.

Advice!
Cases of insufficient or complete absence of insecticide and acaricidal preparations on tick colonies are frequent. The problem of dermanissiosis becomes extremely acute in the spring-summer period, which is associated with an increase in ambient temperature and increased development of ectoparasites, including in natural biotopes.

The tick mite Dermanyssus gallinae is considered to be the most dangerous parasite in modern poultry farms and private farms, regardless of their production area. The invasion of birds by it entails a number of economic losses due to:

  1. shortage of products
  2. reduce the safety of livestock and egg production of poultry,
  3. decrease in the quality of the products obtained,
  4. deterioration in feed conversion,
  5. biological value of embryos and hatchability of eggs.

There is an increase in susceptibility to various diseases of infectious etiology.

More than 30 species of birds, including synanthropic ones, are susceptible to dermanissiosis.

What do they look like?

Mite individuals usually have a flattened, elongated, oval-shaped body, which consists of individual scutes. This morphological feature allows arthropods to increase in size several times after feeding with blood.

For ectoparasites of the imaginal stage, a characteristic feature is four pairs of long limbs that are movably connected to the body.In the legs there are still alterations with a pair of claws and transparent suction cups.

The first pair of limbs serves as an organ of sensation. The mouth apparatus is piercing-sucking type, chelicerae are quite long, skeleton-like. The size of the male is smaller than that of the female, his chelicera are shorter, but more massive.

Males. The body of males has an elongated shape, in comparison with the body of females. The length of hungry tick mites averaged in the range of 0.6–0.85 mm, although individuals whose size in a hungry state exceeded 1 mm were also detected; the color was yellowish. The length of the ticks after blood saturation was more than 1 mm, the color is red, almost brown.

Since dermanissus ticks in laying hens and broilers are thermophilic and hygrophilic, humidity of 70-100% is necessary for their development. The full cycle of tick development (larva, protonymph, deutonymph, imago) at an optimum temperature of 20-25 ° C lasts an average of 6-12 days, favorable conditions shorten the period of ectoparasite metamorphosis.

Attention!
Females. Depending on the amount of blood consumed, the female lays 3-20 eggs for one egg laying, on average 17-24 hours after the first blood consumption. The eggs are glued to the substrate with a special sticky substance.

Their location is single, the eggs are small and covered with a thin shell. Usually the female goes through about ten gonotrophic cycles. After 2-3 days, sedentary larvae hatch from them, each of which has three pairs of limbs.

The development of the tick during this period is carried out due to the embryonic yolk. The protonymph has four pairs of limbs and feeds on the blood of the host. Within 48 hours, molting and transformation of the protonymph into a nymph occurs. Next is another molt and, at favorable temperature and humidity, on the eighth day, female ticks are able to lay eggs physiologically.

The eyes of the chicken tick are absent. The cuticle is soft, dorsal and ventral scutes absent. The overwhelming majority of the studied mite individuals had a tuberous, folded structure.

The location of the genital opening is between the first and second pairs of limbs. In females, the sexual opening looked like a transverse gap, while its shape in males was in the form of a crescent.

In some literature there are reports of the death of ticks at temperatures below 5 ° C, although this was not confirmed as a result of in vitro experiments.

Ticks entered the houses and chicken coops, usually when birds, including young animals, came from dysfunctional dermanissiosis farms, with contaminated packaging containers.

In some cases, the introduction of ectoparasites by synanthropic birds (sparrows and swallows), the nesting sites of which were detected on the territories of dysfunctional farms, is not excluded.

Diagnosis

To establish a diagnosis of dermanissiosis, the premises are subjected to a thorough examination at least once a month, in particular: cell batteries with a bird, cracks and cracks in the walls, equipment near ventilation and heating systems, adhesions and corners of cellular equipment.

Important!
At high and medium invasion intensities, ectoparasite colonies were easily visible with the naked eye.

In the case of staying in a contaminated house, the attendants observed manifestations of itching, rashes on the skin, in some cases, an increase in temperature. With prolonged contact of personnel with an invasive onset, ticks can feed on their blood, usually feeding on the skin of their hands, neck, and shoulders.

In the case of low intensity of invasion, at first glance, tick colonies may not be visually visible, in which case it is necessary to place moist tissue in the invisible nooks and crannies of the processing equipment in the house. After its removal, in the presence of ticks in the house, they can be contemplated on the fabric.

Treatment

Tick ​​control, first of all, should be aimed at breaking the chain of the ectoparasite development cycle.

Before decontamination, a mandatory step is a thorough mechanical cleaning, removal and disposal of the litter.

For a more effective fight against the tick population, it is desirable to use acaricides from different groups in the complex, systematically rotating them to prevent the emergence of resistant races of Dermanyssus gallinae.

Prevention

Preventive measures include:

  • careful monitoring of the possible appearance of ectoparasites;
  • manning herds with livestock from prosperous farms;
  • weekly disinfection of houses;
  • Prevention of unauthorized persons into the production facilities;
  • monthly decontamination of containers, transport; during sanitary breaks, mandatory deaccharization of houses, at least three times;
  • deacarization processing of adjacent territories, the multiplicity depends on the temperature parameters of the environment;
  • constant monitoring of the presence of ectoparasites in places of their potential stay.

In households, ticks in laying hens and broilers are rare; breeders carefully monitor chickens, youngsters and the parent herd.

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