African horse sickness is an economically highly important non-contagious but infectious Orbivirus disease that is transmitted by various species of Culicoides midges. The equids most severely affected by the virus are horses, ponies, and European donkeys; mules are somewhat less susceptible, and African donkeys and zebra are refractory to the devastating consequences of infection. In recent ye...

Pruritus often leads to self-inflicted trauma, alopecia, and moderate to severe secondary skin lesions resulting in horses which are visually disfigured and/or unsound for work. Because of the many possible diagnosis of a pruritic skin disease the history, especially the environment, seasonality, age of onset and progress of the disease, is very important in making a diagnosis. Time spent obtai...

The global distribution of bluetongue virus (BTV) has been changing recently, perhaps as a result of climate change. To evaluate the risk of BTV infection and transmission in a BTV-endemic region of California, sentinel dairy cows were evaluated for BTV infection, and populations of Culicoides vectors were collected at different sites using carbon dioxide. A deterministic model was developed to...

The genus Culicoides Latreille 1809 is a well-known vector for protozoa, filarial worms and, above all, numerous viruses. The Bluetongue virus (BTV) and the recently emerged Schmallenberg virus (SBV) are responsible for important infectious, non-contagious, insect-borne viral diseases found in domestic ruminants and transmitted by Culicoides spp. Both of these diseases have been detected in wil...

Insect bite hypersensitivity (IBH) in horses is a seasonal, IgE-mediated, pruritic skin disorder primarily caused by Culicoides spp. We hypothesize that a mixed Th2/Th1-type immune status, off season, alters into Th2-dominated immune reactivity in the skin of IBH-affected ponies in the IBH season. To study these immune response patterns Culicoides-specific IgE levels, skin histopathology and cy...

Bluetongue has only been isolated as yet from species of biting midges of the genus Culicoides, initially from Culicoides pallidipennis in South Africa by du Toit (1944) and then from C. variipennis in the United States of America by Price and Hardy (1954). More recently it has been isolated from C . pallidipennis, C . milnei and C . tororoensis in Kenya (Walker and Davies 1971), and from C. pa...

Two new species of biting midges, Culicoides cornatus sp. nov. and pileus are described based on adults. The compared to their congeners with close similarity. All specimens were collected from the Indian Sundarban Mangrove Forests, few mounted in glass slides prepared for SEM study. Total 78 under genus Latreille including two ones (6 ornatus group) India. An adult key group Oriental Region is...

To identify the vectors of bluetongue virus (BTV) in Germany, we monitored Culicoides spp. biting midges during April 2007-May 2008. Molecular characterization of batches of midges that tested positive for BTV suggests C. obsoletus sensu stricto as a relevant vector of bluetongue disease in central Europe.