Diversity analysis of tick-borne viruses from Hedgehogs and Hares in Qingdao, China

Tick borne virus (TBV) has increasingly attracted global public health attention. In this study, the viral composition of five tick species, including Haemaphysalis flava, Rhipicephalus sanguineus, Dermacentor sinicus, Haemaphysalis longicornis, and Haemaphysalis campanulate, from hedgehogs and hares were profiled via metagenomic sequencing in Qingdao, China. We identified 36 strains of ten RNA viruses belonging to four viral families, including three viruses of iFlaviridae, four viruses of Phenuiviridae, two viruses of Nairoviridae and one virus of Chuviridae. We found that the three novel viruses of two families, namely Qingdao tick iflavirus (QDTIFV) in the family of iFlaviridae, Qingdao tick phlebovirus(QDTPV)and Qingdao tick uukuvirus (QDTUV) in the family of Phenuiviridae. This study showed that Qindao ticks harbor a diverse virus, including some viruses that can cause emerging infectious diseases, such as Dabie Bandavirus. Phylogenetic analysis revealed that these tick-borne viruses were genetically related to viral strains isolated earlier in Japan. The findings shed new light on the cross-sea transmission of the tick-borne viruses between China and Japan.