Veterinary Parasitology 284 (2020) 109203 Available online 14 August 2020 0304-4017/© 2020 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. Research paper Mesostigmatid mites (Acari: Mesostigmata) at the domestic-wildlife interface: Poultry and passerine birds of central Argentina Sofía I. Arce a , Lucas D. Monje a , Leandro R. Antoniazzi a , Claudia C. Sosa b , Agustín A. Fasano b , Martín A. Quiroga a , Marcela Lareschi c , Pablo M. Beldomenico a, b, * a Laboratorio de Ecología de Enfermedades, Instituto de Ciencias Veterinarias del Litoral (ICiVet-Litoral), Universidad Nacional del Litoral (UNL) / Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científcas y T´ ecnicas (CONICET), RP Kreder 2805, 3080 Esperanza, Santa Fe, Argentina b Facultad de Ciencias Veterinarias, UNL, RP Kreder 2805, 3080 Esperanza, Santa Fe, Argentina c Centro de Estudios Parasitol´ ogicos y de Vectores (CEPAVE), CCT CONICET- La Plata / Universidad Nacional de La Plata, Bv. 120 e/ 61 y 64, (1900) La Plata, Buenos Aires, Argentina A R T I C L E INFO Keywords: Gallus gallus Laying hens Passeriformes Ornithonyssus Macronyssidae South America ABSTRACT Wild birds may be considered a possible source of parasitic mesostigmatid mites for poultry, but only few studies explored this hypothesis. In addition, there is very little information about the parasitic mites present in com- mercial poultry systems from southern South America. To contribute with data on parasitic mesostigmatid mites at the domestic-wildlife interface, we conducted a study in which samples were systematically collected from laying hens and wild birds (adults and nestlings), for two years at three commercial laying hen farms. The occurrence of mesostigmatid mites were compared among hosts. A proportion of the collected mites were morphologically identifed to the species level, fnding that host preference varied greatly depending on mite species: laying hens were only parasitized by Ornithonyssus sylviarum, wild bird nestlings were mostly parasitized by Ornithonyssus bursa, and in small proportion, by O. sylviarum, while adult passerines were parasitized by both Ornithonyssus species, and sporadically by Pellonyssus cf. reedi and Dermanyssus cf. triscutatus. In laying hens, there was intra- and inter-annual variability in mite occurrence, but no consistent seasonal pattern, whereas in adult wild birds, mites showed the highest prevalence in spring and the lowest in summer. Not coinciding with this general pattern, the occurrence of O. bursa matched the reproductive activity of wild birds. A phylogenetic analysis based on a fragment of the 16S rRNA gene was carried out for a subsample of the mites collected, showing that the O. sylviarum mites present on adult wild birds and laying hens had the same haplotype (100% identity). Additionally, mites obtained from wild birds morphologically identifed as O. bursa presented two distinctive haplotypes (89.8% identity), one phylogenetically related to O. sylviarum and the other to O. monteiroi. These fndings show that in central Argentina commercial laying hens are parasitized mainly by O. sylviarum while wild birds are also hosts to other mite species. Adult wild passerines, especially house spar- rows, may be a source of O. sylviarum for commercial poultry. 1. Introduction The northern fowl mite, Ornithonyssus sylviarum, the tropical fowl mite Ornithonyssus bursa (Mesostigmata: Macronyssidae) and the poultry red mite Dermanyssus gallinae (Mesostigmata: Dermanyssidae) are common ectoparasites of commercial laying hens worldwide. These mites may also accidentally parasitise mammals (Miller and Price, 1977), including humans, resulting in a health issue for workers in poultry farms (Mullens et al., 2004a; George et al., 2015). In commercial hens, hematophagous mesostigmatid mites are able to cause a reduction of red blood cell counts (Matthysse et al., 1974) and body mass (Devaney, 1979). These parasitic mites are also responsible of an array of indirect costs on ftness (Sigognault Flochlay et al., 2017), which may result in important economic losses by, ultimately, reducing egg production, egg size, and increasing feed and water intake (Deva- ney, 1979; Mullens et al., 2009; Sigognault Flochlay et al., 2017). Heavily infested focks may suffer important drops in productivity and feed conversion effciency, leading to a severe reduction in profts * Corresponding author at: Laboratorio de Ecología de Enfermedades, Instituto de Ciencias Veterinarias del Litoral (ICiVet-Litoral), Universidad Nacional del Litoral (UNL) / Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científcas y T´ ecnicas (CONICET), RP Kreder 2805, 3080 Esperanza, Santa Fe, Argentina. E-mail address: pbeldome@fcv.unl.edu.ar (P.M. Beldomenico). Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Veterinary Parasitology journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/vetpar https://doi.org/10.1016/j.vetpar.2020.109203 Received 23 January 2020; Received in revised form 8 August 2020; Accepted 9 August 2020