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Journal of General Virology header logo Journal of General Virology

Volume 106, Issue 6

Isolation and genetic characterization of a novel Kevo orbivirus and a strain of Mobuck virus from mosquitoes in Finland Open Access

Abstract

The genus (, ) comprises several globally important vector-borne animal viruses, such as borne bluetongue virus, African horse sickness virus and epizootic haemorrhagic disease virus (EHDV). Orbiviruses that are associated with mosquitoes are a diverse group including established mosquito-borne animal pathogens such as the Peruvian horse sickness virus and phylogenetically related less well-characterized viruses isolated mostly from mammals. Although reported from various geographic regions, these viruses have not previously been detected in northern Europe. Using next-generation sequencing and bioinformatic tools, we identified two orbivirus strains from virus isolation trials of Finnish specimens performed in mosquito C6/36 cells. Phylogenetic analysis of the obtained sequence data suggested one of the isolates to represent a strain of Mobuck virus (MBV), previously described in the USA from a diseased white-tailed deer coinfected with EHDV. The second isolate, which originated from Kevo in northern Finland, was found divergent from all publicly available orbivirus sequences and was tentatively named as Kevo orbivirus (KEVOOV). Further studies are required to investigate the potential animal disease associations of the newly detected orbiviruses KEVOOV and MBV in Finland and possibly wider in Northern Europe.

  • Received:
  • Accepted:
  • Published Online:
Keyword(s): Finland , Kevo orbivirus , Mobuck virus , mosquito-borne virus , Ochlerotatus communis and orbivirus
Funding
This study was supported by the:
  • EU4Health DURABLE (Award Nr 101102733)
    • Principal Award Recipient: OlliVapalahti
  • Sigrid Juséliuksen Säätiö
    • Principal Award Recipient: EiliHuhtamo
  • Horizon 2020 (Award 874735)
    • Principal Award Recipient: OlliVapalahti
  • Academy of Finland (Award No 351040)
    • Principal Award Recipient: OlliVapalahti
  • Jane ja Aatos Erkon Säätiö
    • Principal Award Recipient: OlliVapalahti
  • Helsinki Institute of Life Science, Helsingin Yliopisto
    • Principal Award Recipient: EiliHuhtamo
  • Doctoral programme in Microbiology and Biotechnology of University of Helsinki
    • Principal Award Recipient: MaijaT. Suvanto
  • Suomen Eläinlääketieteen Säätiö
    • Principal Award Recipient: MaijaT. Suvanto
  • Otto A. Malm Lahjoitusrahasto
    • Principal Award Recipient: MaijaT. Suvanto
  • Societas Biologica Fennica Vanamo
    • Principal Award Recipient: MaijaT. Suvanto
  • Finnish Society for Study of Infectious Diseases
    • Principal Award Recipient: MaijaT. Suvanto
© 2025 The Authors
  • This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License. This article was made open access via a Publish and Read agreement between the Microbiology Society and the corresponding author’s institution.
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2025-06-06
2026-04-17

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Isolation and genetic characterization of a novel Kevo orbivirus and a strain of Mobuck virus from Ochlerotatus communis mosquitoes in Finland
J. Gen. Virol. 106, 002101 (2025); https://doi.org/10.1099/jgv.0.002101
/content/journal/jgv/10.1099/jgv.0.002101
/content/journal/jgv/10.1099/jgv.0.002101
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