title: The tick blood meal: from a living animal or from a silicone membrane?
abstract: An artificial feeding unit with a reinforced silicone membrane to replace host skin provides ticks with a perch over blood with a tick attachment rate of 75-100%. Some 5 mg of an acaricide like fipronil is sufficient to establish survival curves over different doses down to ppb levels in blood. This in vitro feeding assay for hard ticks is more advantageous than in vivo trials on animals.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Biology, University of Neuchâtel, Neuchâtel, Switzerland. thomas.kroeber@unine.ch
authors.forename: Thomas
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Kröber
authors.forename: Patrick
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Guerin
mesh_terms: D000821:Animal Feed; D000826:Animal Testing Alternatives; D000818:Animals; D001769:Blood; D002417:Cattle / Q000097:blood; D005260:Female; D018884:Ixodes / Q000502:physiology; D008567:Membranes, Artificial; D012828:Silicones; D013983:Tick Control / Q000379:methods; D013987:Ticks / Q000502:physiology*
chemical_list: D008567:Membranes, Artificial; D012828:Silicones