In vitro tick-feeding bioassays
Significant progress has been made in the area of in vitro feeding of ticks, largely thanks to the pioneering achievements of Thomas Kröber and Patrick Guerin in Neuchatel. TBD-I is contributing by providing ready-for-use in vitro feeding chambers, which have assisted many clients in getting over the first steps of making their own membranes.
TBD-I has introduced TicksUp, a device wherein the tendency of some tick species to crawl upwards is facilitated by providing the blood meal in the upper compartment. Several different configurations are available, depending on the tick stage and species. TicksUp6 and TicksUp12 are the most popular, whereas TicksUpXL is the preferred chamber for large-scale feeding of immature Ixodes larvae.
TBD-I provides TicksUp6 in a bioassay with 12 chambers for screening acaricidal compounds with three concentrations and controls. Clients can choose to purchase our bioassays, which are fully standardised for adult Ixodes ricinus or Ixodes scapularis ticks, or otherwise, TBD-I provides in-house services for screening compounds.
Our webshop (www.tbdintshop) provides a broad range of choices concerning membrane thickness and size of the chambers as well as the type of attractant (which we coined Ticketizer, a hair extract which attracts ticks)
