Observed C_q values for Schmallenberg virus (SBV) in Culicoides biting midges infected via different routes and processed ten days post infection.

(A) C. sonorensis infected via intrathoracic inoculation, incubated for ten days after which the abdomen/thorax, head and saliva of individual insects were processed separately using sqPCR. The box-and-whisker plot shows the median (horizontal line), interquartile range (box), 1.5 times the interquartile range (whiskers) and any outliers (crosses). (B) C. sonorensis fed orally on SBV-infected blood via a membrane-based system and processed separately as whole insects using sqPCR (C) C. nubeculosus fed orally on SBV-infected blood via a membrane-based system and processed separately as whole insects using sqPCR.