Prevalence of the red mite (Dermanyssus gallinae) in layer flocks in four districts in northern West Bank,

An experiment was conducted to investigate the prevalence of the red mite (Dermanyssus gallinae) in layer farms in four districts of northern West Bank, Palestine. The four districts were: Nablus, Tulkarm, Tubas, and Jenin. A total of 225 layer farms were investigated for infection with the parasite during the period from September 2009 to August 2010. The highest prevalence of the red mite was observed in the district of Tulkarm (18.3%, 25.5%, 32.7 % and 47.3%, for the districts of Nablus, Jenin, Tubas, and Tulkarm, respec-tively) which can be explained by the hot humid climate in the district and insufficient cleaning. Infection with the red mite was highest in sum-mer (43.8%) and lowest in winter (12%). The high infection rates observed in this study reflect the poor management and housing conditions, char-acteristic of layer farms in the study region