title: Culicoides midge bites modulate the host response and impact on bluetongue virus infection in sheep.
abstract: Many haematophagous insects produce factors that help their blood meal and coincidently favor pathogen transmission. However nothing is known about the ability of Culicoides midges to interfere with the infectivity of the viruses they transmit. Among these, Bluetongue Virus (BTV) induces a hemorrhagic fever- type disease and its recent emergence in Europe had a major economical impact. We observed that needle inoculation of BTV8 in the site of uninfected C. nubeculosus feeding reduced viraemia and clinical disease intensity compared to plain needle inoculation. The sheep that developed the highest local inflammatory reaction had the lowest viral load, suggesting that the inflammatory response to midge bites may participate in the individual sensitivity to BTV viraemia development. Conversely compared to needle inoculation, inoculation of BTV8 by infected C. nubeculosus bites promoted viraemia and clinical symptom expression, in association with delayed IFN- induced gene expression and retarded neutralizing antibody responses. The effects of uninfected and infected midge bites on BTV viraemia and on the host response indicate that BTV transmission by infected midges is the most reliable experimental method to study the physio-pathological events relevant to a natural infection and to pertinent vaccine evaluation in the target species. It also leads the way to identify the promoting viral infectivity factors of infected Culicoides in order to possibly develop new control strategies against BTV and other Culicoides transmitted viruses.
authors.affiliation: Centre de Recerca en Sanitat Animal CReSA, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona - Institut de Recerca i Tecnologia Agroalimentaries, Bellaterra, Spain.
authors.forename: Nonito
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Pages
authors.affiliation: Virologie, Unité Mixte de Recherche UMR1161, Agence Nationale de Sécurité Sanitaire de l'Alimentation, de l'Environnement et du Travail - Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique - Ecole Nationale Vétérinaire d'Alfort, Maisons-Alfort, France.
authors.forename: Emmanuel
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Bréard
authors.affiliation: Virologie et Immunologie Moléculaires, Unité de Recherche UR892, Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique, Jouy-en-Josas, France.
authors.forename: Céline
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Urien
authors.affiliation: Centre de Recerca en Sanitat Animal CReSA, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona - Institut de Recerca i Tecnologia Agroalimentaries, Bellaterra, Spain.
authors.forename: Sandra
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Talavera
authors.affiliation: Virologie, Unité Mixte de Recherche UMR1161, Agence Nationale de Sécurité Sanitaire de l'Alimentation, de l'Environnement et du Travail - Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique - Ecole Nationale Vétérinaire d'Alfort, Maisons-Alfort, France.
authors.forename: Cyril
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Viarouge
authors.affiliation: Centre de Recerca en Sanitat Animal CReSA, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona - Institut de Recerca i Tecnologia Agroalimentaries, Bellaterra, Spain.
authors.forename: Cristina
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Lorca-Oro
authors.affiliation: Virologie et Immunologie Moléculaires, Unité de Recherche UR892, Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique, Jouy-en-Josas, France.
authors.forename: Luc
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Jouneau
authors.affiliation: Virologie et Immunologie Moléculaires, Unité de Recherche UR892, Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique, Jouy-en-Josas, France.
authors.forename: Bernard
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Charley
authors.affiliation: Virologie, Unité Mixte de Recherche UMR1161, Agence Nationale de Sécurité Sanitaire de l'Alimentation, de l'Environnement et du Travail - Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique - Ecole Nationale Vétérinaire d'Alfort, Maisons-Alfort, France.
authors.forename: Stéphan
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Zientara
authors.affiliation: Centre de Recerca en Sanitat Animal CReSA, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona - Institut de Recerca i Tecnologia Agroalimentaries, Bellaterra, Spain.
authors.forename: Albert
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Bensaid
authors.affiliation: Centre de Recerca en Sanitat Animal CReSA, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona - Institut de Recerca i Tecnologia Agroalimentaries, Bellaterra, Spain.
authors.forename: David
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Solanes
authors.affiliation: Centre de Recerca en Sanitat Animal CReSA, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona - Institut de Recerca i Tecnologia Agroalimentaries, Bellaterra, Spain.
authors.forename: Joan
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Pujols
authors.affiliation: Virologie et Immunologie Moléculaires, Unité de Recherche UR892, Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique, Jouy-en-Josas, France.
authors.forename: Isabelle
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Schwartz-Cornil
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D057134:Antibodies, Neutralizing / Q000276:immunology; D001733:Bites and Stings / Q000235:genetics / Q000276:immunology* / Q000469:parasitology / Q000821:virology; D001773:Blood Cells / Q000378:metabolism / Q000469:parasitology; D001819:Bluetongue / Q000235:genetics / Q000276:immunology / Q000469:parasitology* / Q000821:virology; D001820:Bluetongue virus / Q000502:physiology*; D001831:Body Temperature; D002460:Cell Line; D002519:Ceratopogonidae / Q000502:physiology*; D005786:Gene Expression Regulation; D006790:Host-Parasite Interactions / Q000235:genetics / Q000276:immunology*; D056724:Immunity, Humoral / Q000235:genetics; D007249:Inflammation / Q000473:pathology; D007372:Interferons / Q000378:metabolism; D009339:Needles; D012756:Sheep / Q000097:blood / Q000276:immunology / Q000469:parasitology* / Q000821:virology*; D014766:Viremia / Q000469:parasitology / Q000821:virology
chemical_list: D057134:Antibodies, Neutralizing; D007372:Interferons