Proper cleaning after air sac mites?

[missmadison]

Hello,
I've just lost a BCCB to air sac mites. (I treated her with SCATT, but it was too late.)

All the birds have now been treated and moved from my mini-aviary/large wood cage to new temporary cages. I'm wondering if anyone knows the proper way to clean so that I can be sure the flight is mite-free? (I cannot find any information about the virility of this particular anthropod...!)

I've washed the cage down with soap and water, and next am planning on washing it with a bleach/water solution. It will be difficult to let the cage 'soak' in bleach though since it's huge and made from wood/wire. There is also carpeting in the room.

Any advice or solutions to properly clean for this situation?

Thanks!
Jessika

[Sally]

I am sorry you lost your little BCCB. Are you sure, though, that he had air sac mites? ASM is most commonly found in Gouldians and canaries--other species can certainly be infected, but it is not as common. Other respiratory problems can have similar symptoms to ASM.

ASM lie dormant in the respiratory system of the bird, they are not crawling around the cage. Birds usually have a problem when something like stress triggers the ASM to become active, then other birds pick up the eggs in contaminated food, regurgitated food, water.

The washing with soapy water and rinsing with dilute bleach solution and then rinsing with clear water is all you need to do. More important would be to wash all the food, water, and bath containers. If you use a seed hopper, I would toss that seed, wash the hopper, and replace with fresh seed. Again, these are not like the mites and lice we think of as hiding in crevices in the cage or nestbox.

[debbie276]

Jessika,
Here is a link to a very good study done on airsac mites
http://www.springerlink.com/content/g004248270m8v821/
If you look below the picture there is a link to the full PDF report

Hope this is of help to you

[missmadison]

Thanks for the replies. Yes, it was definitely air sac mites (I had a necropsy done). From what I understand, many finches can get them, its just more prominent in canaries and gouldians.

She may have also had a bacterial infection in conjunction with the mites, but since I was treating her with a few antibiotics, the necropsy results for this were inconclusive.

I know that knemidokoptes can actually survive on certain surfaces for a small amount of time and wondered if anyone knew if sternostoma tracheacolum were the same. I will read the article posted and hopefully will find out - thanks for sharing!