With this project, we suggest to investigate the vector competence of two Culicoides populations from Switzerland (one from the Swiss Central Plateau, 600 m asl, overwhelmingly Obsoletus complex midges; the other from the pre-alpine area, 1600 m asl, mixed Obsoletus complex/Culicoides subgenus species, mainly C. grisescens) for two isolates each of AHV (serotypes 4 and 9) and EHDV (serotypes 6 and 7). The experiments will be run under fluctuating temperature regimes corresponding to ‘normal’ or exceptionally hot summer conditions at the Swiss Central Plateau (i.e. average temperatures of 22 °C or 26 °C ± 6 °C). Laboratory-reared C. sonorensis will be included in the experiments as ‘positive control’.
Second, we aim to evaluate whether a passive virus surveillance system that is deployed to confirm the circulation of mosquito-transmitted pathogens (‘sentinel mosquito arbovirus kit’, SMACK; Johnson et al., 2015) can be adapted for the use with biting midges.