Initiation and maintenance of vector arthropod colonies, elucidation of vector-virus interactions and the inheritance of competence and refractoriness

Unique colonies of several species of arthropod vectors are already maintained, with facilities available to expand into new arthropod groups or species as appropriate scientific opportunities arise. The current Culicoides colonies are vectors of important notifiable viruses including bluetongue virus and African horse sickness virus. The tick colonies are vectors of African swine fever virus. These resources enable the continuous provision of large numbers of individual vectors of known physiological state, thereby facilitating year-round research on the infection, replication and transmission of the study viruses by the vectors, and all aspects of virus-vector interactions. Also, the production by selective breeding of daughter colonies of individual vector species, each with a defined rate of oral susceptibility and transmission, and the sequencing of the genomes of individuals from such colonies, will provide unrivalled tools to investigate the inheritance and the genetic basis of susceptibility and refractoriness. These unique resources provide outstanding opportunities to promote multidisciplinary investigations (molecular, entomological, virological, genetic, modelling) and collaborations (both within and beyond IAH), and also facilitate training of colleagues at a range of levels from student to post-doctoral fellow.