Molecular Identification of Palaearctic Culicoides Blood Meals from Different Localities in France

Abstract

Culicoides are small biting midges involved worldwide in blue­tongue and African horse sickness transmission. Feeding behav­iour as well as spatial and temporal dynamics of trophic behav­iour of Culicoides is unknown at the specific level for Palaearctic species. Multiplex allele-specific polymerase chain reaction (PCR) assays were used to identify the blood meal source of five main Palaearctic species. Species-specific primers of potential hosts (cow, goat, sheep, human, cat, dog, horse) were derived from vertebrate mitochondrial cytochrome b. Two different mul­tiplex assays served to identify blood meals from livestock or domestic fauna, and to determine whether multiple blood meals had been taken (gonotrophic concordance). Moreover, this method helped to identify specimens at the specific level. The first results highlight the interest of this valuable tool combined with species identification assays, and suggest that Culicoides species may have an opportunistic behaviour regarding host dis­tribution and density. Future studies will focus on the temporal dynamics of trophic behaviour.