Whole Tick Histology A Practical Protocol to Prepare Paraffin-embedded Hard Ticks for Histology

Course overview

Ticks are important ectoparasites that are capable of transmitting multiple classes of pathogens and are currently linked with many emerging tick-borne diseases worldwide. There is a continuous need to further our understanding of ticks and the pathogens they transmit. Whole tick histology provides a full scope of the tick internal anatomy, which allows researchers to examine multiple organs of interest in a single section. However, routine histologic processing for hard ticks is challenging due to the rigidity and impermeability of their exoskeleton. While this problem can be overcome by embedding the specimens in hard media like epoxy resin, the sectioning process calls for specialized equipment and techniques that are not routinely available in many standard histology laboratories. In addition to discussing potential problems when working with paraffin-embedded whole ticks, this workshop will introduce a practical and customizable protocol to produce high quality whole tick sections using commonly available tools, reagents and standard histologic equipment.