Experimental Infection of Ticks with SFTSV

Many members in the class Bunyaviricetes are tick-borne viruses. Experimental viral infection of ticks is greatly needed to better understand the tick-virus interactions. To date, multiple laboratory techniques for the viral infection of ticks have been documented. Here we describe two methods of infecting Haemaphysalis longicornis ticks with SFTSV: infecting ticks through microinjection and direct feeding on infected animal hosts. Both methods have been shown to be effective in infecting ticks.