Ornithonyssus bacoti
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Ornithonyssus bacoti | |
|---|---|
 | |
Scientific classification  | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Arthropoda |
| Subphylum: | Chelicerata |
| Class: | Arachnida |
| Order: | Mesostigmata |
| Family: | Macronyssidae |
| Genus: | Ornithonyssus |
| Species: | O. bacoti |
| Binomial name | |
| Ornithonyssus bacoti (Hirst, 1913) | |
Ornithonyssus bacoti (also known as the tropical rat mite and formerly called Liponyssus bacoti) is a hematophagous parasite.[1] It feeds on blood and serum from many hosts.[2][3] O. bacoti can be found and cause disease on rats and wild rodents most commonly, but also small mammals and humans when other hosts are scarce.[3][4] Outbreaks tend to occur in older, less maintained buildings. The mite, however, can travel several hundred feet on its own if necessary to find a host and can survive for extended periods of time without a host. This, along with the nonspecific dermatitis it causes, can prevent accurate and fast diagnosis of rat mite dermatitis. The scarcity of reports, due in part to misdiagnosis and also the mildness of its symptoms, makes the disease seem less common than it is. The tropical rat mite can be found in both temperate and tropical regions or rather all continents except the Arctic and Antarctic.[3]
The tropical rat mite was first reported in Australia in 1913 in a human case report.[5] In 1923, the United States identified it as a cause of dermatitis in humans. In 1931, it was discovered in Hamburg, Germany, in a seaport.[2][1]
Anatomy
The tropical rat mite is between 0.75 and 1.44 mm in length and is unsegmented with chelicerae or mandibles which are suited to piercing.[4][3] They have a sharp caudal apex of the scutum, an oval genital shield, and a cranially positioned anus.[2] These mites are capable of parthenogenic reproduction.[6] After taking a blood meal, they are static and yellow or dark red in color. However, before a blood meal, they are more active and grey in color.[3]
Life cycle
Ornithonyssus bacoti has five lifestages: egg, larva, protonymph, deutonymph, and adult. The only two stages that feed are the protonymph and the adult.[4][3] Once they have fed, they either drop off the host to molt or lay up to 100 eggs. An egg takes one and a half days to hatch into a larva, which then attaches to a host and takes one to two days to molt into a protonymph. A protonymph then molts into an adult. The whole lifeycle takes 7 to 16 days to complete. A minimum of 13 days is needed to go from egg to egg.[4] The larva is the only stage that has three pairs of legs, as opposed to four pairs.[6]