Dermanysuss gallinae attacks humans. Mind the gap!

Figures & data

Figure 1. Dermanyssosis cases in Europe (red dots: urban cases; yellow dots: occupational cases). (Colour online)

Table 1. Reports of Dermanyssus gallinae on humans in Europe

Year of record	City, region, country	Type of infestation	Number of outbreaks	Location and number of people attacked	Source	References
1930	Zurich, Switzerland	Urban	1	Unknown	Synanthropic birds	Schrafl (1930)
1953	Poland	Occupational	1	Poultry house, one farmer	Infested poultry farm	Litwinski (1955)
1961	Rotterdam, the Netherlands	Urban	8	Apartments Twenty-three persons (one adult, three children; three times one child; two adults, four children; two adults, three children,; two children; two adults, one child)	Pigeons, tiger finches, parakeets, canaries	Frenken (1965)
1967	Hamburg, Germany	Urban	1	Hospital, Twelve patients	Ventilation openings infested by mites from birds’ nest	Winkler (1967)
1967 and 1968	Cornwall, UK	Urban	2	Private apartments Two children (1967), One girl (1968)	Starlings’ nest found in crevice where waste pipe exits the house (1967) Nesting material found in loft close to girl’s bedroom (1968)	Reed et al. (1969)
1967	Danzig, Poland	Urban	1	Hospital Unknown number of patients and hospital staff	Pigeons’ nest	Skierska (1968)
1969	London, UK	Urban	1	Hospital Many patients (number unknown)	Abandoned pigeons’ nests	Freeman & Kataria (1969)
1971	Danzig, Poland	Urban	1	Railway shipment Unreported number of office employers	Pigeons’ nests	Wegner (1973)
1974	Kielce, Poland	Urban	1	Office One employee	Immediately following removal of pigeons’ nest close to office	Kowalska & Kupis (1976)
1981	Vienna, Austria	Urban	1	Optical instruments factory Four employees	Pigeons’ nest outside a factory window	Bardach (1981)
1985	UK	Urban	1	Hospital Four elderly patients	Infested pigeons nesting on window ledges of two hospital wards	Neill et al. (1985)
1988	Basel, Switzerland	Urban	1	University lab One man	Laboratory infestation by D. gallinae, escaped from plastic bag containing pigeon faeces harbouring red mites	Haag-Wackernagel (1988)
1996	Nijmegen region, the Netherlands	Urban	2	Private apartments Two adults and one child	Birds’ nests under the roof tiles	Prins et al. (1996)
1997	Exeter, UK	Occupational	1	Poultry house Two workers	Chickens	Rossiter (1997)
2001	Emilia Romagna, Italy	Occupational	1	An elderly woman	Small hen house adjacent to patient's house	Pampiglione et al. (2001)
2001–2007	Apulia, Basilicata, and Campania regions, Italy	Urban	6	Offices (Law Court/Town Hall) Ten employees (2003) Seven employees (2005) – Private apartments Six adults (2001, 2005, 2007)	Abandoned feral pigeons’ nests near infested buildings (hole in the wall/ behind air-conditioning units)	Cafiero et al. (2007, 2008)
2003–2008	Amsterdam, the Netherlands	Urban	96	Apartments, several people	Synanthropic birds’ nests, mainly pigeons, in outer walls of apartments	Buijs (2009)
2005	Tilburg region, the Netherlands	Urban	1	Private apartment	Pigeons’ nest with dead pigeon adjacent to the bedroom window of the patient	Diederen et al. (2006)
2005 and 2006	Modena, Italy	Urban	2	Primary school Many pupils, number unknown (2005) – Private apartment One woman (2006)	Feral pigeons roosting and nesting on school roof – Colony of pigeons nesting on chimney-pot of attic	Gelati et al. (2007)
2006–2008	Valencia, Bétera-Camp de Turia, Spain	Urban	4	University offices/ army residence/cottage Unknown number of adults and three children	Abandoned nest close to cottage/pigeons’ nest behind air-conditioning units	Fuentes et al., 2009
2007	Modena, Italy	Urban	3	Site unknown Three subjects in total	Removal of pigeons’ nests from window ledge	Ferri (2007)
2007	Apulia region, Italy	Urban	1	Two private apartments in the same building Three adults and one child	Abandoned pigeons’ nest under gutter between balconies of two apartments	Cafiero et al. (2008, 2009)
2007–2009	Apulia region, Italy	Occupational	11	Poultry farms Eleven poultry workers	Caged laying hens	Cafiero et al. (2011)
2007	Czech Republic	Urban	1	Apartment Two adults and two children^a	Mites entered apartment viahole in the roof^b	Melter et al. (2012)
2008	Créteil, France	Urban	1	Hospital An elderly patient	Abandoned pigeons’ nest near a window	Bellanger et al. (2008)
2008 e 2009	Apulia and Basilicata regions, Italy	Urban	4	Private apartments Seven adults and one child (2008), One adult (2009)	Abandoned pigeons’ nests (2008); Sparrow nest (2009)	Cafiero et al. (2013)
2009	Kütahya, Turkey	Urban	1	Private apartment A woman and her family members	Mites from pigeons through the air ventilation system	Akdemir et al. (2009)
2009	Basel, Switzerland	Urban	1	Renovated old apartment building	Feral pigeons using balcony for roosting /breeding	Haag-Wackernagel & Bircher (2010)
2010	Hatay, Turkey	Occupational	1	Poultry house Elderly worker	Poultry	Dogramaci et al. (2010)
2010	Puglia, Italy	Urban	1	Hospital Four ascertained patients and several subjects in previous four months	Feral pigeons using window ledge near the infested rooms for roosting/breeding	Galante et al. (2011)
2011	Puglia, Italy	Urban	1	Private apartment Three adults	Following removal of an active pigeons’ nest close to the house	Mancini et al. (2012)
2013	Barcelona, Spain	Urban	1	Private apartment Three patients (couple and their child)	Pigeons’ nests near balcony	Collgros et al. (2013)
2008; 2011	Pančevo, Serbia	Urban	1	Private apartment Five patients (couple and their three children)	Mites in nearby dove nest entering apartment through cracks in frame of balcony door	Gavrilović et al. (2015)
2015	Apulia, Italy	Urban	1	Office, one employee	Abandoned pigeons nesting in air-conditioner unit surround	Giangaspero et al. (2016)
2017	Denizli, Turkey	Occupational	1	Hobby chicken house Old country woman	Chickens raised in patient’s garden	Şengül et al. (2017)
2013, 2015–2017	Apulia and Molise regions, Italy	Urban	7	Private apartment One child (2013) – Office and apartment Four adults and one child (2015); – Three private apartments Four adults and one child (2016–2017)	Abandoned pigeons’ nests (2013, 2015–2017) Caged canaries (2015)	Cafiero et al. (2017, 2018)
2015	Ferrara, Italy	Urban	1	Two public conference halls Four people	Colony of feral pigeons located on the roof of the building	Pezzi et al. (2017)
2016	Utrecht, Netherlands	Urban	1	Apartment	Pigeons’ nest	https://www.hartvannederland.nl/top-nieuws/2016/sabrina-en-zoontje-4-dakloos-door-vogelmijt/

^aThey developed B. quintana infection.

^bSeven mites were found positive for B. quintana DNA.

Figure 2. Dermanyssus gallinae-dermatitis caused by mites migrating from a sparrows’ nest (original, M.A. Cafiero).

Figure 3. A pigeons’ nest in close proximity to an apartment, identified during an inspection to investigate a D. gallinae outbreak (original, M.A. Cafiero).

Figure 4. Dermanyssus gallinae, migrated from a pigeons’ nest and collected in a home (original, M.A. Cafiero).

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