Lone Star virus

The Lone Star virus is a highly divergent Bunyavirus, which is carried and transmitted by the Lone Star Tick, Amblyomma americanum. This is the same vector that transmits the SFTS virus, and the newly discovered Bhanja and Heartland virus.

Lone Star virus shares the same vector as these viruses and has many characteristics of them, it shares less than sixty-one percent of its amino acid identity with them. Though the virus has never been a cause of illness in humans, it has the ability to infect both human and monkey cells, and its affects are seen, in both cell lines, 72 hours after contact.