Family Differences in Attractiveness of Poultry to the Chicken Body Louse, Menacanthus stramineus (Mallophaga)12

A 2-year study was made of numbers of body lice, Menacanthus stramineus (Nitzsch), on Maryland Flightless chickens divided into 10 flocks of 11 layers and 1 male per floor pen. Estimates on degree of infestation were made on 5 or more occasions following artificial infestation using a subjective score of 0 to 10. Evidence is submitted of pronounced and consistent variation in louse numbers in the same pen. Significant differences in louse scores in 1960–61 and 1961–62 were found for dam families, but sire families revealed no differences. This suggests a dam influence in body chemistry, or behavioristic characters, or both.