Isolation of orbiviruses and uukuviruses from puffin ticks.

Two viruses were isolated from a pool of three female Ixodes uriae ticks found on a dead puffin (Fratercula arctica) on a beach at Arbroath, Scotland. Complement fixation tests showed that one of the viruses was an orbivirus belonging to the Kemerovo serogroup and was related to Cape Wrath virus. Cross-reactions did not occur in neutralisation tests with 4 Kemerovo group viruses previously isolated from I. uriae collected in British seabird colonies. The orbivirus was therefore named Arbroath virus. The other virus was of the Uukuniemi serogroup (family Bunyaviridae) and reacted in complement fixation and neutralisation tests with a virus isolated from I. uriae collected from a seabird colony at St Abb's Head, Scotland. Both the orbi- and the uukuviruses replicated in a tick (Rhipicephalus appendiculatus) cell line, RA-243.