An alternative method of blood-feeding Culicoides imicola and other haematophagous Culicoides species for vector competence studies.

The use of cotton wool pads saturated with blood/virus mixture for oral infection attempts was compared to membrane feeding for the assessment of vector competence in C. imicola Kieffer and C. bolitinos Meiswinkel (Diptera, Ceratopogonidae). Although lower infection rates were obtained using pad feeding, it was possible to clearly distinguish the levels of competence between species as well as differences in virus infection rates for various serotypes of bluetongue virus. Reduced infection rates with cotton pad feeding was partly due to a smaller volume of blood meals taken up. However, the method described is likely to be useful in situations where membrane feeding is not viable to separate populations with significant differences in vector competence.