Project Overview

Reports

Commodities

• Animal Products: eggs, meat

• Animals: poultry

• Human Health: workers, residents, applicators

Target Pests

• Target Pests: bed bug, insects

Practices

• Pest Management: chemical control, cultural control, decision support system, eradication, monitoring/scouting, pesticide resistance management, pesticides, traps

• Animal Production: animal protection and health, housing

The overall goal of this multi-state SIPMC Seed Grant is to develop effective, cost-effective, sustainable, and IPM-compatible solutions to eliminate bed bug infestations in poultry production.

Problem: The SE region represents 82.1% of the $50.8 billion US poultry meat production, and the top 5 producing states are in the SE region. The SE region also represents 29.8% of the $19.5 billion US production of chicken eggs. The common bed bug (Cimex lectularius) is an emerging pest with significant impacts on poultry health, the economics of the production system, and worker safety and welfare. Poultry farms are highly vulnerable to bed bugs because (a) chickens represent an excellent blood host, (b) connectivity of houses facilitates the spread of infestations, (c) there are many hiding places in close proximity to the birds, (d) few ectoparasitic insecticides or drugs are available, most require that chickens not be present, and most bed bug populations are resistant to pyrethroids and other common insecticides, (e) chickens remain on the farm for many weeks, with short windows of opportunity to apply biosecurity and pest management measures, and (f) typical bed bug interventions are extraordinarily expensive and relatively ineffective in poultry farms. Frequent blood-feeding by bed bugs can cause stress, allergies, and anemia in birds. Thus, there is an urgent need to understand the frequency and severity of bed bug infestations in the SE, and to know what producers are doing to suppress them (Objective 1) and to innovate poultry-specific bed bug monitoring and management strategies (Objective 2).

Approach:  In Objective 1 we will survey the poultry industry to understand the health and economic impacts of bed bugs. We hypothesize that many farms are infested with bed bugs, infestations quickly increase in size on most farms despite efforts to control them, and producers are becoming aware of adverse health and welfare effects of bed bugs on birds and workers, and lost productivity in infested farms. We will conduct a cross-sectional survey with a structured questionnaire to understand knowledge of bed bugs, the prevalence of bed bugs, and their effects on poultry and workers. In Objective 2 we will develop and validate effective bed bug detection and monitoring tools for poultry farms. There are dozens of bed bug traps in the consumer market, but none are expected to be effective in the dusty poultry farm environment and withstand the pecking of chickens. Effective monitoring devices are essential for all IPM approaches.

Anticipated impacts:  The project addresses an emerging serious problem in the poultry industry in the Southern region, namely the recent heavy infestations of chicken houses with bed bugs. Success of this project will be achieved with the completion and validation of a survey of producers and veterinarians and development of at least one lure and trap that can significantly outperform commercial traps in lab and field assays. Anticipated impacts will include: (1) Understand how bed bugs affect worker morale and animal health and welfare in poultry production; (2) Understand obstacles to implementation of IPM in poultry farms; (3) Educate poultry producers, farm managers, and veterinarians about ecologically compatible IPM strategies and tactics; and (4) Full characterization of a new bed bug attractant lure and development of new poultry-specific trap that will support detection and monitoring of bed bugs in poultry farms and the documentation of efficacy of various IPM strategies. Moreover, elements of our findings, such as the odors and lures we develop can be repurposed for residential, hospitality and military settings.

Success of this project will be achieved with the completion and validation of a survey of producers and veterinarians and development of at least one lure and trap that significantly outperform commercial lures by increasing bed bug trap catch in lab and field assays. Expected results are:

• Complete a cross-sectional web-based anonymous survey of Southern poultry producers and veterinarians that will quantify the frequency and severity of bed bug infestations in poultry farms in the past 5 years in relation to other major pests, the ease or difficulty to control bed bugs, perceived health and welfare impacts of bed bugs on chickens and workers, the importance of bed bug dispersal between farms and workers’ homes, strategies and tactics used to manage bed bug infestations, and the economic losses they incur in comparison to other pests.
• Characterize a new attractant formulation that increases bed bug attraction to traps and a new trap design that increases captures and withstands damage from pecking birds.

Long-term outcomes, beyond this one-year project, will include:

• Understand the impacts of bed bugs on worker morale and animal health and welfare in poultry production.
• Understand obstacles to implementation of IPM in poultry farms.
• Educate poultry producers, farm managers, and veterinarians about ecologically compatible IPM strategies and tactics.
• The full characterization of a new bed bug attractant lure will support the development of new traps.
• New traps will support detection and monitoring of bed bugs in poultry farms. Early detection will increase the likelihood of successful elimination. Monitoring will support the documentation of efficacy of various IPM-based strategies.
• Applications beyond trapping, such as bait development and attract-and-kill strategies, will demonstrate that our technology outperforms commercial lures. Moreover, both lures and traps should be effective in other environments, and thus repurposed in residential, industrial, hospitality, and military settings.
• Long-range impacts on stakeholders will include greater sensitivity to bed bug invasion, better timing of various pest management procedures (e.g., insecticide applications, biocontrol, cultural practices), and overall greater food security. These are outlined in the attached Logic Model.