title: Blood-feeding patterns of horse flies in the French Pyrenees.
abstract: Horse flies can mechanically transmit Besnoitia besnoiti, the agent of bovine besnoitiosis. Although previously limited to enzootic areas, especially the French Pyrenees Mountains, bovine besnoitiosis is now considered a re-emerging disease in western Europe. To improve understanding of the role of horse flies as mechanical vectors, this study investigated their blood-feeding ecology in the eastern French Pyrenees, in two high-altitude summer pastures whose main domestic ungulates were cattle, and in a wildlife park with native fauna. Species-specific PCR assays were conducted to identify the sources of blood meals: wild boar, horse, cattle (or bison), sheep (or mouflon), goat, red deer, roe deer and izard (or Pyrenean chamois). In La Mouline pasture, tabanids (N=20) fed on red deer (70%) and cattle (30%). In Mantet pasture, tabanids (N=24) fed on cattle (52%), red deer (20%), wild boar (16%), horse (8%) and sheep (4%). In the wildlife park, Tabanus bromius (N=32), the most abundant species collected, fed on red deer (85%), bison (9%) and wild boar (6%). Despite relatively high densities in both the pastures and in the wildlife park, small wild ungulates (izard, mouflon and roe deer) were not detected as a source of blood meals. Only two mixed blood meals were identified in two specimens of T. bromius: cattle/horse for the specimen collected in the pastures, and bison/wild boar for the specimen collected in the wildlife park. Our findings showed that tabanids display a level of opportunistic feeding behaviour, in addition to a preference for red deer, the latter being particularly true for Philipomyia aprica, the most abundant species collected in the pastures.
authors.affiliation: UMR 5175, Centre d'Ecologie Fonctionnelle et Evolutive (CEFE), Université Paul-Valéry (UM3), 34199 Montpellier Cedex 5, France. Electronic address: frederic.baldacchino@cefe.cnrs.fr.
authors.forename: F
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Baldacchino
authors.affiliation: UMR 1309 CMAEE, CIRAD, INRA, 34398 Montpellier, France.
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Gardès
authors.affiliation: UMR 5175, Centre d'Ecologie Fonctionnelle et Evolutive (CEFE), Université Paul-Valéry (UM3), 34199 Montpellier Cedex 5, France.
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: De Stordeur
authors.affiliation: UMR 5175, Centre d'Ecologie Fonctionnelle et Evolutive (CEFE), Université Paul-Valéry (UM3), 34199 Montpellier Cedex 5, France.
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Jay-Robert
authors.affiliation: UMR 1309 CMAEE, CIRAD, INRA, 34398 Montpellier, France.
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Garros
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D004175:Diptera / Q000502:physiology*; D005247:Feeding Behavior; D005260:Female; D005602:France; D006790:Host-Parasite Interactions; D007303:Insect Vectors / Q000502:physiology*; D011156:Population Density
keywords: Besnoitiosis; Blood meal; Cytochrome b; Livestock; Tabanidae; Wild ungulates