Granada Virus: a Natural Phlebovirus Reassortant of the Sandfly Fever Naples Serocomplex with Low Seroprevalence in Humans

A new member of the phlebovirus genus, tentatively named Granada virus, was detected in sandflies collected in Spain. By showing the presence of specific neutralizing antibodies in human serum collected in Granada, we show that Granada virus infects humans. The analysis of the complete genome of Granada virus revealed that this agent is likely to be a natural reassortant of the recently described Massilia virus (donor of the long and short segments) with ayet unidentified phlebovirus (donor of the medium segment)

The authors thank all members of the Red de Enfermedades Víricas Transmitidas por Artrópodos y Roedores, a multidisciplinary group founded by the Fondo de Investigaciones Sanitarias (FIS), Spanish Ministry of Health (G03/059). This work was founded also by Instituto de Salud “Carlos III” and is part of the work carriedout within the Red de Investigación Cooperativa en Enfermedades Tropicales (RICET) network (FIS C03/04 and RD06/0021). Workthe Center for Infection and Immunity in the Mailman School of Public Health of Columbia University is supported by National Institutes of Health Grants AI051292 and AI57158 (Northeast Biodefense Center– Lipkin), the US Department of Defense, and Google.org. Finally, wealso thank Alla Tashmukhamedova for her help in sequencing