Title : A novel thogoto-like virus isolated from ticks collected from domestic animals in Isiolo County, Kenya
Abstract:
Thogotoviruses are emerging zoonotic tick-borne viruses of public health importance. The viruses mainly affect domestic animals causing severe encephalitis and miscarriages but also febrile illness in man that may sometimes end in death. We report the isolation of a novel virus in the family Orthomyxoviridae and genus Thogotovirus that is closely related to Jos virus. It was isolated from a pool of Rhipicephalus pulchellus ticks collected from Isiolo County, Kenya, that had been inoculated in Vero cells. Cytopathic effects of the virus were observed from 7-9 days post-infection. High throughput sequencing and phylogenetic analysis revealed that the virus was closely related to Jos virus but formed a divergent branch. The genome had six segments with nucleotide lengths as follows, segment 1-PB2 (2277bp), segment 2-PB1 (2173bp), segment 3-PA (1945bp), segment 4-GP (1539bp), segment 5-NP (1479bp) and segment 6-M (933bp). The greatest amino acid sequence similarity of the virus and others in the genus ranged from 67-73%.
The isolation of this virus from ticks emphasizes the need for continued surveillance. We recommend further studies to evaluate its pathogenic potential in humans and animals in order to understand it medical and public health importance.
