Virology Journal · Published 2026-07-10 · DOI 10.1186/s12985-026-03251-w
Gábor Endre Tóth, Anna Nagy, Jaime A. Costales, M. Alejandra Camacho, Santiago F. Burneo, Marike Petersen, Alexandra Bialonski, Heike Baum, Balázs Horváth, Anna Heitmann, Renke Lühken, Michael Schmidt, Jonas Schmidt-Chanasit, Zsófia Tauber, Dániel Cadar
Abstract Genomic surveillance of Usutu virus (USUV) in blood donors is hampered by extremely low viral loads, which usually prevent reliable genome sequencing. We developed and validated a tiled amplicon-based sequencing protocol optimized for low-titer samples. Serial dilutions of four phylogenetically distinct USUV lineages showed ≥ 95% genome recovery above 100 RNA copies/µL and 65–98% recovery between 3 and 100 copies/µL. We applied the method to 27 USUV-positive blood donors from Germany (median 1.70 copies/µL), achieving lineage assignment in 74% and ≥ 70% genome coverage in 63% of samples. This approach enables routine genomic surveillance of USUV in blood donors.
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Tóth, G., Nagy, A., Costales, J., et al. (2026). A highly sensitive amplicon sequencing workflow for genomic surveillance of Usutu virus. Virology Journal. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12985-026-03251-w