Focal persistence and phylodynamics of Heartland virus in Georgia.

ABSTRACT: Heartland virus (HRTV) is an emerging tick-borne virus associated with severe illness in the USA. There are large gaps in knowledge of HRTV diversity, evolution, and transmission due to a paucity of HRTV-positive samples and genome sequences. We identified a focal site of HRTV-positive Amblyomma americanum ticks in central Georgia and developed a novel multiplex-amplicon sequencing assay to generate full HRTV genome sequences. By screening over 21 000 field-collected ticks from 2021 to 2023, we identified six positive pools. Five were collected from the site in central Georgia where our group first detected HRTV-positive ticks in 2019 and one from a site in western Georgia ~175 km away. The HRTV genome sequences from Georgia were highly related, even across this distance and over fi

SUBMITTER: Bellman S 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12456176 | biostudies-literature | 2025

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature