Ticks and midges spread diseases

Kids love this activity: looking down microscopes at live midges and ticks and drawing what they see.

We explain that the midges and ticks live by sucking blood. In the process they can spread diseases. For example, midges spread bluetongue virus and African horse sickness virus, whilst soft ticks spread African swine fever virus . The Institute?s Pirbright Laboratory is responsible for diagnosis of these and other diseases.

We thank the BBSRC for providing the funds for our microscopes.

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