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Exp Appl Acarol (2016) 70:343367 DOI 10.1007/s10493-016-0084-8
REVIEW PAPER
Michael L. Levin1 Lauren B. M. Schumacher1
Received: 25 April 2016 / Accepted: 3 August 2016 / Published online: 20 September 2016 Springer International Publishing Switzerland (outside the USA) 2016
Abstract Use of laboratory animals as hosts for blood-sucking arthropods remains a time-proven and the most efcient method for establishment and propagation of slowly feeding ixodid ticks, despite introduction of techniques involving articial feeding on either animal skins or synthetic membranes. New Zealand White rabbits are usually the most accessible and most suitable hosts routinely used for establishment and maintenance of a large variety of multi-host tick species. Here we describe standard procedures for maintaining colonies of multi-host ixodid ticks by feeding all developmental stages (larvae, nymphs, and adults) upon New Zealand White rabbits. When needed, the same procedures can be easily adapted to other species of laboratory or domestic animals from mice to dogs and goats. A summary of our experience in maintaining laboratory colonies of Ixodes scapularis, Ixodes pacicus, Amblyomma americanum, Dermacentor variabilis, Dermacentor occidentalis, Haemaphysalis leporispalustris, and Rhipicephalus sanguineus with descriptions of the complete laboratory life cycles and reliable production of uninfected ticks under standardized conditions has been published by Troughton and Levin (J Med Entomol 44:732740, 2007). Here we provide step-by-step recommendations for various procedures used in the maintenance of ixodid tick colonies based on over 20 years of experience.
Keywords Tick colony Colony maintenance Ixodid ticks Rearing
Introduction
Worldwide, ticks are second only to mosquitoes as vectors of human disease and are, arguably, the most important veterinary parasites causing large economic losses due to both the parasitism itself and transmission of tick-borne pathogens. Justiably, much effort
& Michael L. Levin
1 Rickettsial Zoonoses Branch, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 1600 Clifton Road NE,
MS G-13, Atlanta, GA 30329-4018, USA
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and resources have been put into development of anti-tick control strategies and studies in tick-borne pathogens.
Many modern studies of the virulence of tick-borne pathogens in animals have been performed using pathogens grown and maintained in articial culture, cell lines, or serial passages of animal...