OK. Welcome to, this webinar on parasites in backyard poultry flocks. I'm Benjamin South.

I work for the Chicken vet, and I'm a commercial poultry vet, here in, in the South of the UK. So today, we're gonna look at, an overview of, of parasites on, on poultry. It's not just backyard.

You'll find them on all, all poultry here in the UK. And we're gonna break these down into, ectoparasites and endoparasites. And for each of these, categories, we'll go through, identification of the different parasites we find.

The clinical signs you may see on the birds, certainly if, if, Your, your clients are bringing in birds to your clinics, looking at treatment and then going through possible control and prevention. OK, we'll start with the ectoparasites. These are the most common parasites really seen in, in poultry, both commercial and backyard flocks.

Mites and lice are the, are the main challenges. We do see ticks from time to time and, and small flying heads. But ultimately, you'll be dealing with the mites and lice.

Clinical approach really, if you're used to dealing with fleas and ticks, it's very similar, so we're looking at both bird control and the environment. All of these mites, cause a degree of discomfort for the birds. And actually, they're quite often overlooked for quite serious production losses, deaths, and, and sort of irritation to the birds.

They'll often bring pain with them. Birds being fairly stoic creatures, they don't tend to show issues until they're sort of really struggling with it. So quite often mites and lice cause subclinical issues.

And the stress will is increased by ectoparasites, and any stress on, on poultry is, has a negative impact on both their health, their production, and, and general behaviour. So one of the most common ectoparasites we, we would find both in small coops in the backyard and, and, and out in big free range chicken sheds in the UK is the red mite. Now, they are blood sucking, so they, feed off the bird.

They are nocturnal, so these mites will live, during the day, during daylight hours, off the bird, on the coop, hiding in, in sort of crevices within, in the cracks and of the coop. Certainly wooden coops are the worst for this. They have a very quick life cycle.

So, from, from the egg to the first nymph, which is bloodsucking, if the temperature is correct in terms of warmth and the environment is right, and there's plenty of chickens around, it can be as quick as just a few days. So you can imagine, certainly in springtime, we can get explosions of red mite in, in, in our backyard flocks. Adult mites can live without a blood meal for, for many months.

So just because you can't see any, or you haven't had any for a while, certainly during the winter time. Yeah, all your coop, the, your client's coop has been empty for a while. Certainly doesn't mean that they are free from red mites.

And it's, it's those periods of time then, that the coops are empty that are most important for getting rid of red mites for the, for the next lot of birds or the, the future birds that might come into the, the, into the flock. And a, a common occurrence is when a, a client might buy a coup off, you know, secondhand. It's been cleaned, but really, it, it needs to have a thorough clean down and, because the chances are, if it's had poultry in before, there'll be some red mite lurking in, in the cracks.

Clinical signs. I mean, general irritation caused, you may not pick this up, but quite often, birds that are vocal, they may not be roosting properly at night, so their egg laying may be disrupted. They may have some feather disruption, certainly in areas that they can peck themselves.

So, we'd love talking about across the back, the lower back, the tail base, around the cloaca. Possibly on, on the, on the breast as well. And, and really, birds that have a severe, red mite infestation, their, their egg production will be really, invariable.

So they might lay, lay one morning, and then a couple of days might go by, and then they'll lay again. Because these mites are bloodsucking. You may see an anaemia.

It might be more common for, for a backyard client to not notice an issue until the bird is, is looking quite sick. So, certainly, anaemia and lethargy is, is one of the clinical signs. As I said, egg production stalls.

You might see damage around the cloaca from where the mites have been feeding. So, some, some reddening, possibly, some blood spots on the eggs. And if you're seeing mites on the bird during the day, then, then you're dealing with quite a severe infection.

So remember these are nocturnal mites and they will. Be off the bird as soon as light appears. So, in hive infestations, you may see the mites running around on the bird and, and or on the egg.

So, if your client's saying that when they pick up the eggs in the morning, they're getting mites on them, that's, that's certainly a, a telltale sign. Similar to the red mite is the northern fowl mite, also, a blood-sucking mite. It tends to, rather than live off the bird, they will spend their, their entire life on the bird.

Again, severe irritation. They, they suck blood. So we're looking at anaemia.

Probably quite difficult to tell the difference between red mite and northern owl mite, just in your, in, as with your eyes and sort of, it's not really necessary to, to distinguish between them, cause we'll deal with them in the same way. And you might find that they sort of clump up around feather bases, like, like this image image suggests. Very similar clinical signs.

We've got the severe irritation. Birds become very vocal. And it's, it's a, it's a disruptive vocal.

It's not, sort of a clucking. It's much more of a, a squawking. And certainly, as the birds are going to roost, or as they're coming off roost, you'll, you'll notice that the vocalisation, is increased.

And again, egg production will, will, Be stalled And in this time, you will see mites on the bird. So treatment should concentrate on, on the eradication from both the bird and the coop and the environment. There are specific sprays that are available for cleaning down coops that are, are, specifically targeting arachnids.

I would concentrate cleaning, certainly in those, those periods of time when you're looking at, explosions of, of red mites. So during the spring and as the weather's warming up. But also, as you're coming into winter, to ensure that no mites are, are living over the winter period.

If your clients are not cleaning the coop out regularly, then I would certainly suggest that they, they start. So, a weekly change of, of bedding and substrate in, in the coop with a possibly a monthly deep clean, will, will help. If there is a, an infe infestation present, then I would certainly, do a weekly clean out with a, a deep spray.

Dimaceous earth is used a lot, certainly in the commercial industry. By adding, a sort of dust bathing area, whether it's a charred sandpit with some sand and dimaceous earth in, this will encourage the birds to express natural behaviour and dust bath. And the diotomaceous earth will, it has an activity and physical erosion on, on the mites, carapace.

There is a, a non-POMV product called Bergau, which we use, both in backyards and, and commercial industry. This is a synthetic polymer that basically, Blocks the spiracles of the mites. So this can be sprayed both in the environment and, on the birds, as a, it comes as a concentrate and you dilute the solution down.

The ex salt is a POMV product. It's licenced treatment with, with zero egg withdrawal. You, give it to the birds in the water, and it's 2 doses 7 days apart and has a very effective kill rate.

So, that product has a residue in the bird. As that mite bites the bird, it will, ingest the, the fluorina, which is the chemical, and those, those mites will die. In your backyard setting, if your clients are not too fussed about eating the eggs, they're just, it's, the bird is a pet, then think about ivermectin drops.

I would do it once, the drops once a week. And pretty much, I'd probably use them until I'm seeing no further signs of mites on the bird. Now, remember, You have to make sure that your clients are sorting out the environment as well as just treating the bird, just like fleas on, on dogs and cats.

Prevention, thinking about monitoring. So, one of the, common problems really, I suppose, with backyard flocks, is that clients may not be noticing the mites early enough. And so when they get round to, to starting to treat, they're already, on the back foot, and they're looking at, a large population of mice to try and kill.

So, you can, you can purchase tape traps, which are basically double-sided sticky tape that you can put. In a box underneath the coop, underneath the nesting areas, underneath the roosting areas. And they can be monitored on a, on a monthly basis to see what levels of red mite we're seeing.

I'd always think about quarantining, for new birds that are, are coming into the flock. Certainly, quarantining and treating to, to stop them bringing in any, any potential eggs or, or larvae that they're carrying. As I said earlier, cleaning the coop and disinfecting regularly.

Plastic coops tend to be easier to clean. I know they're probably not as aesthetically pleasing, but certainly, wooden coops allow for those cracks and crevices to appear, which the red mites will, will, will get into and, and hide during the night. And again, reducing dark areas in, in, in the coop is, is important.

So another mite that we deal with quite regularly, and, and is often a problem for, for older birds, really, is the scaly leg mite. These mites are, are microscopic and you, you will not be able to see them, but what you do see is the, is the presence of clinical signs. They feed on, on, soft skin cells on the leg.

They burrow underneath those, those scales, and they'll spend their entire life cycle on the bird. So, birds can appear very lame, very, very, showing a lot of pain and ataxia. So, certainly, a classic presentation in, in, for backyard birds is when the client probably hasn't picked this up for a long time, brings the bird in as being lame.

You have a look at the legs and the scales are very dry. They're raised. And you, you have quite severe leg lesions with, with chronic scaly leg mite infestations.

There's a lot of inflammation. The, as I said, the birds are, are, are quite a lot of pain with it. The scales on the lower legs and feet are, are lifted.

They're often brittle. And you quite often get sort of an exative crust present. Probably, in the early stages of scale leg bite, it's less common, but certainly in chronic cases you're more often have a a secondary bacterial infestation, .

Certainly poo dermatitis. Because the birds are generally inactive and, and sitting still. You'll also see weight loss, dehydration, things that come along with that, that, inactivity.

So treatment We're, we're dealing really with the same solutions. So, the durga, can be used as a dip. So, you can mix up a, a solution in, say, a jam jar or a pot and dip the legs into that, into that solution.

Exalt is, again, an, an option. The ivermectin drops will also be effective. Obviously, if you're using the ivermectin drops, you've got to consider the egg withdrawal on, on, on those birds.

More sort of, old school methods, I suppose, things like, petroleum jelly. So, rubbing the legs with petroleum jelly, you're both soothing those dry, brittle scales, but also, Causing an anaerobic environment for the mites and and they will die. It's a very frustrating, .

Issue scaling legmite because you quite often don't see. Recovery signs very quickly. The scales on the leg take a long time to regrow and recover.

So it may be that the mites have gone, but you're still seeing, raised legs, sorry, raised scales on the legs. But if you've certainly, if you've used any of those treatments above, they are effective at killing those mites. But it's, it's quite a long, a long-term, treatment option.

I'd probably consider some early, early use of analgesia. Certainly, the birds that I've seen with scalemite are, are quite crippled with it. And there's, there's some options here with either oral meloxicam, the paracetamol, or, or possibly some aspirin.

Prevention again, it's sort of It's, monitoring and making your clients aware of, of what is normal and what isn't. The earlier you pick these infections up, the, the easier it is to, to control. Again, treatment and quarantine of new birds coming into those backyard environments.

Keeping the environment clean, good biosecurity, and. You should, I suppose, be able to prevent it, but more often than not, it's the older birds, the old cockerels that we tend to see with these issues as those. Bird's age, their, their ability to keep their skin and their scales clean is, is comes harder.

And, you know, they have other issues going on as well. And often a, a, a morbid bird tends to attract, other issues and. Certainly might tend to be one of those issues.

Another, common ectop parasite is, is the, the lice. We don't tend to see this that often in, in the commercial aspect, but certainly backyard flocks, I'd see this the most. They are visible, so they're little golden, lice that will be running around in the feathers and on the skin, and quite often it's the one that the clients will, will see first.

If you're seeing these chewing lice, then more often than not, there'll be other mites causing problems as well. So, certainly be aware of that and, and talk to your clients about those other, other options. They're much larger, so 2 to 3 mil.

They feed on, on the, the sloughing skin and feathers, feather dust, on the bird. One thing that they do produce are these sort of hard white crusting, sort of egg bundles at the base of the feathers. These are often seen around the cloaca and around the vents.

So, quite often are mistaken for, for diarrhoea or urate deposition on, on the feathers. But actually, if you have a feel of them, they're very hard, you can break them off. And if you look at them under the microscope, they're, they're just big clumps of, of small little eggs and old eggs as well.

As the nymphs remove themselves from those, eggs. The, the eggs stay there and more eggs are then, and then deep, sort of laid on top of them. The, life cycle is very short, and again, certainly in those, as the weather warms up, we see rapid population increases, and.

As certainly, with warm weather, you see that, but also in the wintertime, when birds are coming together and sitting closer together, and the population, you know, spending more time in the coop, we can see increases as those lice transfer from bird to bird. Clinical signs, they don't tend to cause morbidity as such, but certainly, clients will pick these lice up more, sort of, I suppose, quick, quick, quickly, just, because they're visible. So, I'm sure if you left a, a lice infestation to, to become more chronic, then you would see more morbidity in those birds.

Again, it's, it's to do with irritation, distress, the birds will lose weight, just like they would with, with the mite infestation. The, because the lice are quite quick and they do a lot of sort of movement around the birds, you tend to see a, a little bit more feather pecking. They cause a little bit more irritation in, in that sense.

And so the birds, a lot of the trauma will be caused by the birds pecking themselves. And, like I said earlier, the, the clumping of the feathers around the, around the cloaca and, and sort of lower abdomen, often is, is caused by these sort of egg clumps. Treatment Again, we're looking at, the, the erggale solution.

Now, these lice, they don't, they're not sucking the blood, essentially. So, the exalt, probably isn't one that I'd choose. But certainly, the, the derggale solution or the ivermectin spot on seem to be quite effective at, at, at removing these lice.

I think prevention is, is, again, very important. We're looking at the same, same style of prevention as, as the mites. Trying to keep an eye out for them, picking up that infection early, quarantining new birds coming in, good biosecurity, and, and keeping those coops as clean as possible and and regularly disinfecting them.

So they are sort of the common ectoparasites that we, we deal with, and certainly the ones that are will show morbidity and and problems in our backyard flocks. We'll go, we're gonna move on now to the parasites internally. Often the, this group of parasites are missed as well, until the birds are showing quite, severe signs of morbidity, and mortal or mortality.

Often, the, the amount of parasites we see is, is, is great. Again, because we tend to pick up these infections very late, as, because the clients basically do not bring in, bring in the birds early enough. .

Poultry are, are susceptible to, to a huge number of, internal parasites. They can lead to quite significant egg drop. So, certainly in the commercial industry, we see economic losses because of endo parasites.

Monitoring and, and diagnosis is, is very simple, but is often overlooked by, by the backyard flocks. But it's something that you should certainly encourage with your clients. So the roundworms.

They are thick, white, easily identifiable, certainly a postmortem. These parasites can grow. Fairly long.

Certainly, considering the size of the, the chickens that they live in. They inhabit mainly the small intestine, but certainly in, in large infections, we, we, they travel into the large intestine as well. They complete their life cycle, in a direct manner, so there's no need for an intermediate host.

And as you can see from this photo, the, you know, infections can become very severe, and they really block up the gut. . They will be ingested.

So the, the eggs will be ingested by birds. So often we see, increase in parasite burdens when the, the climate is, is wet. And those eggs will float on, on surface tension in puddles, and the bird, you know, no matter how much clean water you provide chickens, they always tend to drink from the dirtiest puddle.

We're looking at a pre-patent period of around 5 to 10 weeks. Clinical signs, often birds can, can tolerate a, a small burden. And birds that are coming into your clinics will, probably have a very severe chronic infection by the time that their, their your clients have picked it up.

And it can lead to quite significant ill thrift, weight loss. We're looking at diarrhoea, weakness. Often these birds are very pale.

And Certainly, with commercial diagnostics, where we're looking at postmortems, mainly, they are easily visible. If your clients are, seeing mortality in their backyard flocks, then certainly a postmortem would be an effective way of, of picking these worms up. But, you know, having said that, you know, if you've got Small pets, a small number of birds, then monthly, worm egg counts is a, is a great way of monitoring the, the level of parasites in these birds.

And you can do a simple flotation on, on, on a small sample of, fresh faeces and pick up those, those eggs under the microscope. I'd be looking at anything over 500 eggs per gramme, being significant. As I said, birds can deal with a small burden, just like you would in, in sheep or cattle have a, a sort of an inrefugia population.

Another, internal gastrointestinal parasite, the hair worms. These are much smaller, often tend to only see them on, on, on microscope if you're looking. They tend to be a slightly more, specific in terms of where they are in the gut.

Capillaria, will complete their life cycle directly, but they can also use intermediate hosts like the earthworm. And much quicker pre-patent periods. So, They, they, they can cause, or certainly the population can increase very quickly.

Clinical signs with capillaria. These worms, unlike the big round worms, these bury into the, endothelium of the gut and can cause quite a significant, gastrointestinal changes, leading to sort of bacterial enteritis. You see a lot of ill thrift, weight loss, diarrhoea with these birds.

You can pick up death as well. Certainly, the birds become very weak. Anaemia and secondary, necrotic enteritis is, is quite common, certainly in severe capillary infections.

Morbidity is generally high with mortality. But, as I say, the mortality tends to be birds with a much more chronic, infection. Eggs, obviously, you can pick them up on, on, faecal leg counts.

One thing we'll talk about in terms of treatment, I'm just going through these, these worms now, but capillaria, if I, if they are present, I would, I would always treat, no matter how many, eggs you pick up. The sequel worm Heterraus. Fairly common in, in free-ranging, backyard chickens.

These little worms are visible. Again, if you, if you, have the opportunity to a postmortem, have a look in the sal sacks, and they will be, will be present if, you know, will be visible if they're there. Morbidity, again, just like with, capilllaria, tends to be from chronic infections, secondary bacterial enteritis.

Morbidity tends to be the, the, the primary issue, the birds are lethargic. Again, weight loss, ill thrift, if they're, if they're young birds. Heterachus has a clinical significance because they're, these are the worms that have the ability to, carry the Motar protozoan histomonas.

And that's what we're looking at in terms of blackhead. So that, that will be killing chickens. Certainly, if I turkeys around, they will, they will not survive either.

Pre-patent period is very similar to capilla, so it's sort of 3 to 4 weeks. And again, clinical signs, you've got the presence of the, of the eggs on, on faecal floats. Often, if you're seeing other parasites, I would presume that these are around as well.

And again, the iri, weight loss, diarrhoea, and, and weakness. Gate worms These are probably slightly less common in, in, in backyard birds, but certainly, towards the end of autumn, when there was a lot of game birds being released into, into the UK countryside, the, the risk of backyard birds picking these up is, is greater. They, rather than sitting in the gastrointestinal tract, they will be present in the, the trachea, Parasites, the male is permanently attached.

So in the photo, you can see the little male off, off to the right there. And they classically form this Y shape, and they, they'll attach themselves to the, To the jua wall, they will feed on on blood, but mainly it's the presence of the worm being there that that causes the issue, . Their pre-patent period is around sort of 1820 days.

Migration is, is, of the larvae, can cause disruption in the birds. Don't tend to see morbidity, but what you do see is this classical gaping. The birds are struggling to breathe, so they open their beaks, their heads are stretched out.

You see dyspnea, severe tracheitis. Infections, you know, you can hear these birds sort of, whistling and, and crackling and, snicking, so a a sneeze and a head flick at the same time. Head shaking with, with discharge, or, from the, from the nostrils.

So, with those 44, worms that we just talked about, treatment is, is the same. So, we're looking at, either flubendazole or, or enbendazole. They're both licenced with, with zero egg withdrawal in, in chickens.

They, they are designed or they licenced to target the L4 stage in adults. So, we're not dealing with, with, eggs and early larval stages. So, take that into account when you're, when you're thinking of a treat, treatment regime.

We can dose these drugs in the feed, or they are available in liquid formation as well, so giving the birds, . The option for, for drinking. So often in these cases, we will keep the birds inside, so they only have access to the water that we have treated.

We don't tend to, I'm just gonna step back here, we don't tend to see . Well, we don't see resistance in the poultry industry because of the period of time that we're treating for, rather than, you know, one-off bolus, like in cattle or sheep, or a one-off tablet that we, in the small animal world, the treatment for, worms in, in, in poultry, we're always treating for at least 5 to 7 days continuously. So, We've, these are the only two drugs that are available and we don't, don't see resistance.

Certainly, as I'm talking now, we, there's, there's not, not been that much evidence to suggest that there is resistance there. Tapeworms, we do see tapeworms fairly regularly in in commercial free ranging and and backyard birds. They're generally non-pathogenic, they do require that intermediate invertebrate host to complete their life cycle.

These worms can grow very large, they can cause a lot of blockages in the gut, often. Chickens will die from interceptions or twisted colons, and on postmortem, you can quite often pick up these worms sitting in the gut, and they're often the cause of that. They'll attach themselves to the, to the gut mucosa, release their, their gravid segments.

And quite often, clients will come in saying that they've seen little white dots on, on chicken faeces. And it's something that you certainly should be aware of, that tapeworms could be present. Clinical signs are very similar to the other worms.

So, you're looking at ill thrift, weight loss, maybe some diarrhoea. Again, maybe an acute mortality. Certainly, if, if they're, we're getting sort of, twisted, guts.

And again, postmortem, we, we can certainly visualise these, these parasites very clearly. Treatment's slightly different for tapeworm. You can do a sort of a more regular, flubendazole treatment at a, at a higher rate, or the prazocranil, but often they are, off licence, so must adhere to, to withdrawal times on, on eggs.

So, 77 days. I tend to, to err on the side of caution and tend to do 2 weeks. And they can be really difficult to, to get rid of, but.

Persistent and regular treatment, and they will, they will eventually go, certainly, looking after the environment as well, so. When we're dealing with prevention in terms of, in gut parasites, keeping, keeping the area around the coop clean, dry, and, and free from muddy puddles is very important. So, classically, we, we see increase in worm burdens, sort of coming into autumn when there's a lot more groundwater.

The birds are roaming and, and bringing mud into the, into the shed. And just because, you know, certainly at the moment when we're dealing with, housing orders for for the avian influenza, clients will often think, well, the birds aren't roaming, so there's no need to, to, to worm my birds, but actually, Those birds have been bringing in eggs into that coop regularly for weeks. And so we do see cycling of parasites in-house birds, just as frequent as they would be if they were free roaming still.

But keeping, keeping the range clean, dry, you can lime the range as well. You know, desiccation will kill those parasite eggs, as well as UV lights. So, keeping grass short, keeping it grazed, some people will.

Bring sheep into the the range to keep the grass tight. And when you're, when you're treating these, these worms. Often, it's, certainly, if you're picking up a great burden early on, you may want to repeat, repeat that treatment quite quickly.

So, you could do, a week treatment, 2-week break, and then repeat it again, and then go into a more regular worming pattern, which is maybe every 4 to 6 weeks, or based on, on that faecal leg float. A parasite that we may not pick up very regularly in backyard birds because of it's specific to younger birds, but if you've got clients that are rearing their own chicks, this is something certainly I'll be looking out for. These, these are non-motile protozoa.

They, they are, there are probably 7 or 8 very distinct types or species of immeria that are clearly identified in poultry, and they will attack distinct areas of the bird's gut. Pathogenicity does vary between the species of coxy. And often, you might get a subclinical case.

But if certainly death in young birds, around 3 to 8 weeks, diarrhoea, you know, thrift, morbidity, sort of ruffled feathers, things like that. We're talking, then the chances are that a coccidiosis infection is present. If you remember your, your parasite life cycles, the Amira has a very complex and long life cycle, with, with multiple asexual and, and, the sexual replications.

Ocysts are, are shed into the environment, and they are, Very hardy and very difficult to, to kill. And obviously a, a sporulated cyst was, be infectious, . Body I suppose that the bird will will consume and they need moisture, oxygen and warmth to, to transform from that erocyst to a spirated cyst.

Incubation and sporulation, you know, if, if those environments are correct, you know, if you've got a warm, humid, wet area, they will, they will rapidly, . The infection will rapidly increase, you know, as little as 48 hours. They can, you can go from a, a coup of chicks looking fine, and then the next day you've got 2 dead and, you know, 5 looking very sick.

And you've got those cysts that are, are, are very resilient in the environment, so. Clinical signs, I've discussed them, but it's generally found in birds less than 8 weeks old. They all look very ruffled, they, they're depressed and inappetent.

Chicks might have a lot of diarrhoea, certainly in some species. You can see a lot of blood, coming out of the of the cloaca. They're often hunched up.

You might see quite severe er mortality. Birds can be very anaemic, pale, pale combs, and again, you, you'd see, certainly with tella and nectrix, you see a lot of gut damage and, and again, mortality. Treatments, I'd be thinking of, either Amprolium or Tultrazol.

You can, well, more often than not, if you're dealing with a coxy problem, you are also seeing, quite severe gut disruptions. So, we're thinking of bacterial enteritis. A concurrent antimicrobial would be, prudent, supportive care.

Certainly, if you're looking at very sick, sick chicks in your, in your, with your client, they're looking at fluids and pain relief. Strong, strong birds will recover, you know, 4 to 5 days, they might look a bit ruffled, but they, they will recover. Weaker chicks, they tend to die.

So certainly mortality would be a, something that your client might be seeing and might be the thing that's alarmed them to, to bring their chicks in. Ensure the bird that you're treating is, is kept isolated, kept on a clean, dry litter to avoid that continual coxy cycling. Prevention is very important when it comes to coxy.

So, if your client is rearing chicks quite regularly, you got to make sure that environment is kept clean. Between batches of chicks, the, the sheds should be thoroughly cleaned, use specific detergents and disinfectants that are targeted, for those irists. You can think about, coccidiostats.

So, these can be provided by feed manufacturers in the feed. And they will reduce the amplification of, of shedding of, of cysts. They won't completely kill it, but they will certainly reduce the burden, to allow those birds to, to, to deal with a, a, a smaller, infection.

OK, so we've gone through. The, the common parasites, and obviously, with, with those, we're dealing with both bird treatment and environment treatment. And I suppose the take home message really is, think of fleas, think of, the, the speed at which these parasites are, their life cycles are, and tailor your treatment to that.

So, really focus on the environment. Make sure your client understands the, the life cycle. And, they can be quite frustrating to, to deal with.

But, certainly, if you take both those approaches, both environmental and bird, then you will be successful in terms of, getting rid of these parasites. Thank you.