Fig. 2.

The changes in poultry red mite populations over time during field evaluation of prototype poultry red mite vaccines.

Hens in trial 1 (panel A) were immunised with a prototype vaccine containing a soluble mite protein extract (Vaccine group) or adjuvant only (Placebo group). Hens in trial 2 (panel B), received a recombinant antigen cocktail vaccine containing Deg-SRP-1, Deg-VIT-1 and Deg-PUF-1 (Vaccine group) or adjuvant only (Placebo group). Live mites were released into the cage system at week 18.5. Approximately every 2 weeks thereafter, a mite trap was placed into each cage (n = 96 per group) for a 24 h period and the mites in each trap were manually counted with the aid of a dissecting microscope. The mean number of mites per trap is plotted for both the Vaccine groups (solid black line) and Placebo groups (broken black line) for each time point. The error bars represent the standard error of the mean (S.E.M.).