Table 1.

Artificial (injection) and natural (blood-feeding) acquisition and blood-feeding transmission of MHV68 by ticks.

Experiment	Virus acquisition		Virus transmission
	Ticks	Tick treatment	Molted ticks	Number (%) mice virus positivea
1	Adults	Injected with MHV68 and fed on uninfected mice	n. a.	5/5 (100%)
1 (control)	Adults	Untreated and fed on uninfected mice	n.a.	0/2
2	Larvae	Fed on MHV68 infected mice	Nymphs	2/7 (28.6%)
2 (control)	Larvae	Fed on uninfected mice	Nymphs	0/2
3	Nymphs	Fed on MHV68 infected mice	Adults	3/11 (27.3%)
3 (control)	Nymphs	Fed on uninfected mice	Adults	0/1
4	Nymphs	Fed on MHV68 infected mice	Adults	2/13 (15.4%)
4 (control)	Nymphs	Fed on uninfected mice	Adults	0/2

n.a., not applicable.

^aPositive by nested PCR of blood collected 15 days post-infestation.