Mm. Abbassy et al., NEW ARTIFICIAL FEEDING TECHNIQUE FOR EXPERIMENTAL-INFECTION OF ARGAS TICKS (ACARI, ARGASIDAE), Journal of medical entomology, 31(2), 1994, pp. 202-205
An artificial feeding technique using fetal bovine serum as a food sou
rce was established for the demonstration of West Nile virus transmiss
ion by Argas ticks in susceptibility studies. Fetal bovine serum does
not coagulate and is free from contaminating microorganisms, antibodie
s, and anticoagulants, which are all known to reduce virus titers. Thi
s technique also compensates for the lack of suitable laboratory hosts
as well as problems associated with disease agents, such as viruses t
hat may not produce illness or antibodies after virus exposures.