#Deadly fly strike skin#

At permissive temperatures, an individual adult female fly can lay about 200 eggs on their vertebrate host, mainly on damp areas of the skin or coat (usually anal and perineal areas) ( Sotiraki and Hall, 2012). Flies are attracted to susceptible areas by volatile substances produced by bacterial degradation of skin and wool ( Ashworth and Wall, 1994). The predicted average minimum threshold temperature below which oviposition does not occur is approximately 8.5 ☌ ( Broughan and Wall, 2007). sericata is generally available from work on sheep, although likely to be similar in rabbits. The parasite species most commonly associated with blowfly strike in GB is Lucilia sericata, the Common Green Bottle Fly ( Hall and Wall, 1995), the life-cycle of which primarily drives the seasonality and incidence of disease.

In GB, 75% of farms had been struck with blowfly strike ( Bisdorff et al., 2006), particularly in the south of England, with approximately 1.5% of sheep affected each year ( French et al., 1995), reaching 12–15% on some farms in the absence of blowfly strike control ( Broughan and Wall, 2007). The disease also heavily impacts on sheep, and is associated with a heavy economic burden to the industry, estimated at $280million dollars per annum in Australia ( Sotiraki and Hall, 2012). As such, blowfly strike is a notable welfare concern in affected animals. Overweight rabbits may be less able to clean themselves and thus more prone to blowfly strike ( Cousquer, 2006). Rabbits affected by blowfly strike typically develop tachypnoea, hypothermia, anaemia, considerable soft tissue damage, and if left untreated, can develop toxaemia, shock and rapid death ( Ipek and Ipek, 2012). Using a retrospective questionnaire study, it was shown that 94.5% of practices in England and Wales reported treating at least one case of blowfly strike between May and September 2005, with many affected rabbits dying ( Bisdorff and Wall, 2006). Rabbits, which are a frequently kept as companion animals in Great Britain (GB) ( Sánchez-Vizcaíno et al., 2017), are commonly affected ( Cousquer, 2006). Our results highlight the value of sentinel databases based on EHRs for research and surveillance.Ĭutaneous myiasis, or blowfly strike, occurs worldwide, and is caused by a variety of species of fly ( Bisdorff and Wall, 2006 Hall, 1997). We propose that real-time temporal and spatial surveillance of the rabbit disease may also help inform sheep control, where the seasonal profile is very similar, and where routine surveillance data is also not available. The results presented here can be used for targeted health messaging to reduce the impact of this deadly disease for rabbits. There appeared to be no significant relationship between blowfly strike in rabbits and either the sheep density or rural and urban land coverage types. The most northerly latitude studied was at lower risk of blowfly strike than the most southerly (OR = 0.50, p < 0.001). Overall blowfly strike cases started earlier and peaked higher in the south of Great Britain. For every 1 ☌ rise in environmental temperature between 4.67 ☌ and 17.68 ☌, there was a 33% increase risk of blowfly strike, with cases peaking in July or August.

Rabbits five years of age and over were more than 3.8 times likely to present for blowfly strike. Whilst sex and neuter status in isolation were not significantly associated with blowfly strike, entire female rabbits showed a 3.3 times greater odds of being a case than neutered female rabbits. Of the rabbits presenting with blowfly strike, 44.7% were recorded as being euthanized or died.Ī case control study was used to identify risk factors for blowfly strike in this population. Less commonly lesions were observed affecting other areas of the body (n = 9, 4.3%) and head (n = 8, 3.8%) in 83 consultations (39.9%), the affected area was not specified. The anatomical site of recorded blowfly strike lesions was overwhelmingly the perineal area (n = 109, 52.4%). Here we used text mining to screen electronic health records (EHRs) from a large sentinel network of 389 veterinary practices in GB between March 2014 and April 2017 for confirmed cases of blowfly strike in rabbits.īlowfly strike was identified in 243 of 42,226 rabbit consultations (0.6%), affecting 205 individual rabbits. Despite its severity, there has been minimal investigatory work into the disease in rabbits. In Great Britain (GB), Lucilia sericata is the primary causative species. Blowfly strike is a devastating and often rapidly fatal disease in rabbits.

Deadly fly strike