OCCURRENCE AND SPECIES COMPOSITION OF THE DOMESTIC MITES IN SIX EGYPTIAN GOVERNORATES

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

1 Department of Medical Parasitology

2 Faculty of Medicine

Abstract

Domestic mites, the combined group of household-living storage mites and pyroglyphid housedust
mites, belong to subclass Acari. Identifying mites to species level help to improve the management
of their allergies as they produce species-specific allergens. Knowledge of the impact of
the diverse and changing ecological conditions in the home environment is useful in developing
strategies to avoid the development and growth of large populations of domestic allergic mites.
This study identified domestic mite’s species in six Egyptian Governorates. The dust samples
were collected from the HDM allergic patients for identification and seasonal distribution. From
120 samples, seven species were identified: Dermatophagoides farinae (69.4%), D. pteronyssinus
(55.5%), Tyrophagus spp. (38.8%), Blomia tropicalis (30.5%), Cheyletus spp. (13.8%), Euroglyphus
maynei (5.5%), and Tarsonemus spp. (5.5%). The highest positive samples were in Qalyobia
Governorate (73.7%) and lowest in Cairo Governorate (33.3%). Highest number of mites
was in spring and autumn seasons, and D. farinae was the commonest one.

Keywords