[Acarological faunistic and statistical analysis of dust from various compartments of human dwellings in north-western Poland].

Abstract

The aim of this paper was to compare the species composition of mites in dust samples collected at different compartments of human dwellings of north-western (NW) Poland. In 30 urban apartments (Szczecin, Police, Pyrzyce and Łobez) and rural quarters (Przelewice, Brzesko Szczecińskie, Bylice, Krasne, Kakolewice, Wierzchowo, Przeradz, Kłodzino) from NW Poland, 150 samples of dust were collected at 5 locations: bed area, bedroom carpet, sitting area in the living room, hall carpet, and kitchen floor. Mites were isolated using Berlese-Tüllgren extractors. The isolated dust mites belonged to the order Astigmata, families Pyroglyphidae: Dermatophagoides farinae Hughes, 1961, Dermatophagoides pteronyssinus (Trouessart, 1987), Euroglyphus maynei (Cooreman, 1950) and Hirstia Hull, 1931; Chortoglyphidae: Chortoglyphus arcuatus (Troupeau, 1879) and Glycyphagidae: Gohieria fusca (Oudemans, 1902), Lepidoglyphus destructor (Schrank, 1781), and the order Prostigmata, family Cheyletidae: Cheyletus (Latreille, 1796). The most frequently observed were the species D. farinae (58.9%) and the representatives of the genus Cheyletus (30.6%). Statistically significant differences were found between: the number and concentration of D. farinae in the dust collected from beds in the bedroom and dust from the carpet in the bedroom, living room, hall and kitchen; the number of D. farinae in samples from the carpet in the bedroom and from the kitchen floor; the number and concentration of D. farinae in the dust from the living room and the dust in the hall and kitchen; the number of Cheyletus sp. in samples of dust from bed areas in the bedroom and the samples from the carpet in the bedroom, hall and kitchen; the number and concentration of Cheyletus sp. in dust samples collected from the carpet in the bedroom and samples from the kitchen; the concentration of Cheyletus sp. in dust collected from bed areas and samples from the floor in the hall and kitchen; the number of D. pteronyssinus in dust samples collected from bed areas in the bedroom and samples from the carpet in the bedroom. In conclusion, the number of mites D. farinae, D. pteronyssinus and Cheyletus sp. depended on the place where the mites were sampled. The greatest numbers of these species were observed in the bed areas in bedrooms. The tests confirmed the high occurrence of house dust mites in the apartments in north-western Poland, especially in the bed areas in the bedroom.