SANGERVILLE – The itch started with the animals and then spread to their caretakers.

A local family has been driven from their home by what may be straw itch mites, fungus and mold that they believe came in grain purchased for their farm animals.

Whatever it is, it is so toxic to the health of Dawn and Henry Carfagno IV and their two children, Deanna and Henry V, that the family has been forced to move from their small, cluttered bungalow into three vans parked in the driveway of their Route 23 home.

Emerging from the house wearing a respirator over his face Thursday, Henry Carfagno, 41, said: “Help! We are living a nightmare.” His brief visit into the infested house was to do the dishes from the morning meal, which was eaten in one of the couple’s vans, a vehicle heaped with various medicines, clothes, toys and a telephone that keeps the family in contact with friends and agency officials.

Desperate for assistance, the family has pleaded its case with nearly every state, county and local agency, but so far has been unable to get a quick resolution to the problem, they say.

Penquis CAP officials are willing to help the family, but they already have a long waiting list of projects, according to Lucille Averill, the agency’s deputy housing director. “We’re certainly going to try to help them with whatever their housing needs are,” she said, but it won’t be immediate.

With cold weather on the way, the Carfagnos say they desperately need a camper or mobile home and are willing to trade a vehicle or an animal for a temporary home. Moving away from the school their children attend and leaving behind their animals is not an option, they say.

“I don’t want to lose the animals. The farm is what we wanted all our lives,” Dawn Carfagno, 47, said. She said the animals are therapy for the family. “I’m crying, I’m half dying, I’m humiliated, I’d like to hang on to what I have left,” she said.

The couple, who are both disabled and care for animals that have been abused, first suspected a problem in January when their horses began to appear thin. Dawn Carfagno said she doubled and tripled their feed and notified a local veterinarian, who recommended that she dust the animals for lice. Carfagno said she followed the directions and dusted the animals, and when that didn’t help she gave the animals an iodine bath, followed by a pesticide application. She was startled when a quarter horse stallion started losing its facial hair in July.

Then she felt the itch. And it hasn’t stopped.

To get a little relief from the secondary skin infections and bites, the Carfagnos are on a regimen of antibiotics, worming medicine and special lotions. But they say there has been no relief from the respiratory infections that have plagued the family.

The big problem is that Dawn Carfagno hasn’t been able to get anyone to identify the culprit that has caused the family so much grief and has left their home uninhabitable. She said samples of the grain that she viewed under a high-magnification microscope showed all kinds of mold and pests.

Although he could not identify any pests in samples taken from the animals that were submitted by Carfagno, Dr. Harold Sherman of Foxcroft Veterinary Service in Dover-Foxcroft said Thursday that he suspected the problem may stem from the straw itch mite from the symptoms involved.

The straw itch mite, which infests hay, can cause skin irritation for humans handling the hay. Some people are extremely sensitive to these mites, according to experts. Itch mites are primarily pests of beetles. The beetles eat stored products like grain. The worst problems with straw itch mites occur when hay or straw has been stored where corn, feed or cottonseed has been stored in the past. Their bites produce a rashlike dermatitis over the body accompanied by itching, sweating, fever, headache and vomiting in severe cases, symptoms that have affected the family.

Removal of infested grain or fumigation or both are needed to get rid of the pest.

Veterinarian Dr. Jeff Kelley said he inspected Carfagno’s animals but was unable to determine the cause of the itch mainly because Dawn Carfagno had used so many products beforehand to eradicate whatever was causing the problem. “She does a good job with the animals,” he said.

While Carfagno believes the problem came from the grain, state agriculture officials say the problem likely erupted from unsanitary conditions in and around the home. David Gagnon, director of the Division of Quality Assurance and Regulation, said this week that his department tested samples of the grain. “We found nothing in the product except a little bit of mold,” he said. The mold could have occurred because the grain was stored on pallets on a dirt floor in the Carfagnos’ barn, Gagnon noted. Some of the grain had an expiration date of May 2002, he said.

Gagnon said grain samples also were taken from the hardware store where Carfagno made the purchase, but there were no signs of mold or anything else in the product. He said the grain had been properly rotated and had not expired.

Dawn Carfagno is adamant that the problem lies with the grain. She said her barn was immaculate before she got sick and that she was meticulous about maintenance for her animals, which have been reduced to five horses and seven goats. And no new animals have been placed with the couple, she said.

The problem came after the horses and goats were affected and now all efforts are being made to eradicate the pests, she said.

“We usually rescue animals; now we need rescuing,” Henry Carfagno said as he moved his fingers over his leg to relieve an itch.