Tyulek Virus

And again a new virus will be added to the ever expanding family that also harbours the Influenza viruses. The Tyulek Virus was first isolated from some ticks, Argas vulgaris, collected from the burrow biotopes in multispecies birds colony in the Aksu river floodplain near a village called Tyulek, situated in the northern part of the Chu Valley, Kyrgyzstan.

Recently, the Tyulek Virus was assigned to the Quaranfil group. The Tyulek Virus is thus directly related to the Johnston Atoll Virus,the Lake Chad Virus and the Quaranfil Virus. It is therefore a novel member of the Quaranjavirus that is itself grouped within the Orthomyxoviridae family[1].

The complete genome sequence of the Tyulek Virus was determined. Comparison shows a close relationship (70-80%) between the Tyulek Virus and the other three Quaranjaviruses.

Which means that the Orthomyxoviridae family keeps expanding and its danger of spreading and mutating grows too.

[1] L’vov et al: Taxonomic status of the Tyulek virus (TLKV) (Orthomyxoviridae, Quaranjavirus, Quaranfil group) isolated from the ticks Argas vulgaris Filippova, 1961 (Argasidae) from the birds burrow nest biotopes in the Kyrgyzstan in Voprosy Virusologii - 2014