A Search for Tick-Associated, Bronnoya-like Virus Spillover into Sheep

• Published in: Microorganisms (Basel) Vol. 11; no. 1; p. 209
• Main Authors: Bratuleanu, Bianca Elena, Raileanu, Cristian, Chrétien, Delphine, Guardado-Calvo, Pablo, Bigot, Thomas, Savuta, Gheorghe, Temmam, Sarah, Eloit, Marc
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Switzerland MDPI AG 01-01-2023; MDPI
• Subjects: Amino acids; Animals; Antibodies; Arachnids; Arthropods; Biodiversity and Ecology; Bunyavirales; Environmental Sciences; Fever; Glycoproteins; Immunoprecipitation; Infectious diseases; Insect bites; Life Sciences; LIPS; metatranscriptomics; Microbiology and Parasitology; Parasitic diseases; Pathogens; Phylogenetics; Phylogeny; RNA polymerase; sheep; spillover; Thrombocytopenia; Tick-borne diseases; Ticks; Vector-borne diseases; Virology; Viruses; Romania; France; United States > US; North America; Europe; Germany; spillover; LIPS; metatranscriptomics; ticks; sheep
• ISSN: 2076-2607; 2076-2607
• DOI: 10.3390/microorganisms11010209

Tick-borne diseases are responsible for many vector-borne diseases within Europe. Recently, novel viruses belonging to a new viral family of the order
were discovered in numerous tick species. In this study, we used metatranscriptomics to detect the virome, including novel viruses, associated with
collected from Romania and France. A bunyavirus-like virus related to the Bronnoya virus was identified for the first time in these regions. It presents a high level of amino-acid conservation with Bronnoya-related viruses identified in
ticks from Norway and Croatia and with the
bunyavirus isolated from a tick cell line in Japan in 2014. Phylogenetic analyses revealed that the Bronnoya viruses' sub-clade is distinct from several
families, suggesting that it could constitute a novel family within the order. To determine if Bronnoya viruses could constitute novel tick-borne arboviruses, a Luciferase immunoprecipitation assay for detecting antibodies in the viral glycoprotein of the Romanian Bronnoya virus was used to screen sera from small ruminants exposed to tick bites. No positive serum was detected, suggesting that this virus is probably not able to infect small ruminants. This study represents the first serological investigation of mammalian infections with a Bronnoya-like virus and an initial step in the identification of potential new emergences of tick-borne arboviruses.