INVESTIGATIONS ON THE STORAGE MITE FAUNA OF FARMS IN NORTHRHINE-WESTPHALIA - EAST-WESTPHALIA

In the last years allergologic interest was focused on storage mites ( SM) as a trigger of allergic airway diseases in rural environments. Ma ny investigations of the SM fauna were carried out in a lot of Europea n countries, but not in Germany. Therefore, studies of the SM fauna we re carried out in working, transition and living areas of 20 farms in East-Westfalia. Dust samples from 14 places within each farm were coll ected and analysed microscopically. 98% of all mites found in the farm area belonged to the order Astigmata (SM and house dust mites (HDM)). 134 out of 158 samples of the working area, 12 out of 20 samples of t he transition area and 18 out of 82 samples of the homes contained 109 .140 SMHDM (total 111.683 mites in 180/260 gram). 14 astigmatic mite species (12 SM and 2 HDM) and 8 prostigmatic mite species could be ide ntified. A combined valuation summarizing abundance and steadiness of the SM/HDM showed the following ranking for the working, transition an d living area: Glycyphagus domesticus (Gd) > Lepidoglyphus destructor (Ld) > Acarus siro (As) > Blomia tjibodas (Bt) > Tyrophagus longior (T l) > Thyreophagus entomophagus (Te) > Dermatophagoides pteronyssinus ( Dp). Samples of the working area showed the following ranking: Gd > Ld > As > Tl > Bt > Te. In the transition area the ranking was as follow ed: Gd > Tl > Bt > Dp. In the living area the ranking was as followed: Dp > Bt > El > Gd. Dp was the dominating species in the living rooms, followed by Bt. So, additionally to the known allergologic important SM species there are two new SM species with unknown allergologic impo rtance: Thyreophagus entomophagus in the working area and Blomia tjibo das in the working and living area.