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

Abstract

Tick-borne diseases are responsible for many vector-borne diseases within Europe. Recently, novel viruses belonging to a new viral family of the order Bunyavirales were discovered in numerous tick species. In this study, we used metatranscriptomics to detect the virome, including novel viruses, associated with Ixodes ricinus 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 I. ricinus ticks from Norway and Croatia and with the Ixodes scapularis bunyavirus isolated from a tick cell line in Japan in 2014. Phylogenetic analyses revealed that the Bronnoya viruses’ sub-clade is distinct from several Bunyavirales 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.

Diversity of Viruses in Ixodes ricinus in Europe including Novel and Potential Arboviruses

“…The nymphs were grouped into pools of 15 specimens (116 pools) and adults were treated individually. Furthermore, 202 adult ticks (20 pools) were directly collected from sheep in Eastern Romania, Danube Delta region, during October 2020 and May 2021, as described previously [22]. Additionally, 315 adult ticks (39 pools) were collected using the flagging method between March and September 2015, in Iasi County, Romania.…”

“…Among the core virome, apart from sequences belonging to the Phenuiviridae or Nairoviridae families (see below), sequences related to the Peribunyaviridae family mapped onto six novel strains of Bronnoya-like virus (BroBV-like) which were present in all tick pools [22]. BroBV virus was detected in Norway [19], Croatia [24], and Romania [22] and has been described so far only in I. ricinus ticks. The Flaviviridae family was detected in all libraries but was the most abundant in ticks from Alsace region due to the presence of numerous Jingmen tick virus (JMTV)-related reads.…”

“…Due to the rapid development of next-generation sequencing during the past decade, a significant number of new viruses have been discovered in ticks around the world [18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26]. For example, orthonairoviruses transmitted by ticks are a serious threat to public health worldwide [27].…”

Study of Viral Coinfection of the Ixodes persulcatus Ticks Feeding on Humans in a Natural Focus of the South of the Far East

“…In recent years, in the study of the tick virome, modern research approaches (metagenomic and metatranscriptomic) have been used that have revealed an enormous number of putative new pathogens [ 1 ]. Such information greatly enriches knowledge of the natural diversity of possible pathogens in different tick species [ 2 , 3 ].…”

Current Status of Metatranscriptomic and Related Studies in Hematophagous Disease-Transmitting Vectors

“…Tick-borne viruses are a diverse group that includes members of Flaviviridae, Bunyavirales, Orthomyxoviridae and Reoviridae (Johnson et al 2023). Probably this is why the viral component of the tick microbiome has recently been studied quite extensively through meta-RNA sequencing (e.g., Bratuleanu et al 2023;Cai et al 2023;Guo et al 2022;Harvey et al 2019;Kong et al 2022;Ni et al 2023;Pettersson et al 2017;Tokarz et al 2018;Xu et al 2021;Z. Yang et al 2023).…”