Investigation of the presence of some pathogenic bacteria in poultry red mite, Dermanyssus gallinae (Acari: Dermanyssidae) from Eskisehir region

Dermanyssus gallinae, which is in the Dermanyssidae superfamily of the Mesostigmata order, has a wide host range, but is an external parasite that infests especially poultry. Due to their parasitic life, D. gallinae plays an important role in transferring many disease agents to their hosts. Within the scope of our study, samples of D. gallinae species were collected from chicken coops in 30 different locations in Alpu, Beylikova, Çifteler, Han, İnönü, Mahmudiye, Mihalgazi, Mihalıççık, Tepebaşı, Sarıcakaya, Seyitgazi, Sivrihisar, Odunpazarı districts of Eskişehir province. Ten mite pools (pools) were made from female samples selected from the collected mites and in order to investigate the presence of Rickettsia, Borrelia, Bartonella, Salmonella and Coxiella species in mite pools, specific bacteria-specific citrate synthase (gltA), flagellin B (flaB), NADH dehydrogenase gamma subunit (nuoG), 16S rDNA and Capsular polysaccharide biosynthesis protein (cap) genes were targeted and investigated by Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) method using PCR primer sets. PCR products were run in 1% agarose gel electrophoresis to determine the samples that were positive for the relevant pathogens. The sequences obtained by duplex DNA sequencing of positive PCR products were compared with the NCBI Genbank data. As a result of the comparison, it was determined that 3 mite pools were infected with Bartonella henselae and 1 mite pool was infected with Salmonella enterica subsp. enterica. With this study, the presence of Bartonella henselae bacteria in Dermanyssus gallinae species in our country was recorded for the first time.