Bioassays for in vitro feeding of ticks

Our ready-to-use in vitro feeding chambers significantly reduce technical barriers associated with membrane preparation, chamber construction, and standardisation. Significant advances in in vitro tick feeding bioassays have been made over the past two decades, mainly driven by the pioneering work of

The original design of Thomas Kröber and Patrick Guerin (University of Neuchâtel). (Trends Parasitol, 2007 Sep;23(9):445-9) is available here as TicksDown6. It contains six feeding chambers, each fitted with a silicone-based artificial membrane and placed in a 6-well culture plate to hold the blood reservoir.

We have added TicksDown12, a popular variant with 12 chambers in a 12-well culture plate for containing the blood reservoir. 

TicksDownXL is the largest variant suitable for a variety of tick species and stages.

TicksUp is an in vitro tick feeding device that exploits the natural upward-crawling behaviour exhibited by many hard tick species during host-seeking and attachment.  TicksUp is available in multiple chamber formats to accommodate different tick species and life cycle stages. 

Popular configuration for screening acaricides against adult Ixodes ticks.

For routine laboratory bioassays, offering a higher throughput.

Suitable for immature stages, particularly Ixodes larvae and nymphs.

We provide technical support to select the optimal chamber configuration based on your preferred tick species and life cycle stage.