title: Feather and nest mites of two common resident birds in two ecologically different Egyptian governorates.
abstract: The study of the role played by birds in the distribution of various bacterial, viral and parasitic infections is increasingly from year to year, taking into consideration the flying ability of birds and their migration for food and vital processes. Two of the common Egyptian resident birds, house sparrow (Passer d. niloticus) and laughing dove (Streptopelia s. aegyptiaca) were chosen to study their mite fauna. The overall mite index was 4.74 on the house sparrow and 7.22 on the laughing dove. As to mites, a total of 31 species belonging to 23 genera, 17 families and 3 suborders were collected. The common mites on both types of birds were 22 species. Three species only on house sparrow, and six species only on laughing dove. The house sparrow served host for 25 mite species and the laughing dove served host for 28 mite species. The infestation rates of mites on house sparrow ranged between 1.11% to 23.33% and 0.21% to 34.54% in Sharkia and Qalyobia governorates respectively. For laughing dove, the mite infestation rates ranged between 0.82% to 50% and 3.45% to 55.17% for both governorates respectively. Some of the collected mites have medical and/or veterinary importance. The whole results were discussed.
authors.affiliation: Department of Parasitology, Faculty of Medicine, Ain Shams University, Cairo, Egypt.
authors.forename: T A
authors.initials: TA
authors.lastname: Morsy
authors.forename: S A
authors.initials: SA
authors.lastname: Mazyad
authors.forename: M S
authors.initials: MS
authors.lastname: Younis
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001715:Bird Diseases / Q000469:parasitology*; D010856:Columbidae; D017753:Ecosystem; D004534:Egypt; D005241:Feathers / Q000469:parasitology; D008924:Mite Infestations / Q000469:parasitology / Q000662:veterinary*; D008925:Mites / Q000145:classification*; D020308:Songbirds