Figure 1.

Animals involved in the biology of TBFVs. Small-to-medium sized mammals are known reservoirs of TBFV. Animals with a question mark have been shown to have seroconverted to TBFV infection, but no virus isolation has been demonstrated yet. Large animals play the role of supporting adult tick populations by providing blood meals. Nymphal ticks prefer to feed on medium-sized mammals, whereas larvae favor small rodents. TBFV transmission to naïve ticks is believed to be mostly via co-feeding, and from viremic hosts to a lesser extent (Labuda et al., 1993a, 1997).