Characterization of Farmington virus, a novel virus from birds that is distantly related to members of the family Rhabdoviridae

Abstract

Background: Farmington virus (FARV) is a rhabdovirus that was isolated from a wild bird during an outbreak of epizootic eastern equine encephalitis on a pheasant farm in Connecticut, USA. Findings. Analysis of the nearly complete genome sequence of the prototype CT AN 114 strain indicates that it encodes the five canonical rhabdovirus structural proteins (N, P, M, G and L) with alternative ORFs (> 180 nt) in the N and G genes. Phenotypic and genetic characterization of FARV has confirmed that it is a novel rhabdovirus and probably represents a new species within the family Rhabdoviridae. Conclusions: In sum, our analysis indicates that FARV represents a new species within the family Rhabdoviridae. © 2013 Palacios et al.; licensee BioMed Central Ltd.