Hay Mite Communities in Sheep Farms from French and Spanish BasqueRegions with regard to Scrapie Infection

摘要

It has been suggested that the mites connected with the decay of stored hay may be involved in the transmissionof scrapie, a neurological disorder in sheep. To find out whether there are any obvious differences in the mite fauna in haythat could be related to outbreaks of scrapie in sheep, we analysed the hay fauna from 23 farms in the Basque regions inFrance and Spain, areas with high and very low incidence of scrapie, respectively. We did find some differences in thecomposition of the fauna, and a species such as Pygmephorus spp. was more prevalent in scrapie-infected farms, andparticularly in highly scrapie-infected farms. The former species is associated with late stages in the biologicaldegradation of stored hay and could be linked to the disease. Besides being the first record of the composition of the haymite fauna in Spain and France our finding of differences in mite communities in hay from scrapie versus non-scrapiefarms is a further indication of the possible association of certain mite species with scrapie.