Determination of the role of hard (Ixodid) ticks in the transmission of lumpy skin disease virus in cattle

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The aim of the proposed research is to investigate the transmission of lumpy skin disease virus (LSDV) between cattle by different life stages of A. hebraeum, R. appendiculatus and B. decoloratus ticks. All of these ticks are common in Africa. Laboratory-bred larvae, nymphs and adults will be placed to feed on the skin of the cattle experimentally infected with LSDV. Post feeding the partially engorged adult R. appendiculatus and A. hebraeum males, and larvae hatched from eggs laid by females, previously fed on the skin lesions of cattle with LSD, will be transferred to feed on the skin of non-infected recipient animals. Infected A. hebraeum and R. appendiculatus nymphs will be allowed to moult to adults and then transferred to feed on the skin of non-infected cattle. The recipient animals will be monitored for clinical signs of LSD. Samples will be collected at regular intervals to detect viraemia and seroconversion, and live virus in the skin of the previously non-infected animals. Also, the possible transmission of LSDV from infected to non-infected ticks by co-feeding on non-viraemic hosts, the survival mechanisms of the virus during the moulting of the ticks, the types of tick cells in which the virus multiplies and, the possible presence of virus in tick salivary glands, the cells of the midgut and eggs will be investigated.

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