An infectious full-length cDNA clone of duck Tembusu virus, a newly emerging flavivirus causing duck egg drop syndrome in China

Duck Tembusu virus (TMUV) is a recently identified pathogenic flavivirus that causes severe egg drop and encephalitis in Chinese ducks and geese. It has been found to be most closely related to the mosquito-origin Tembusu virus and chicken Sitiawan virus reported in Malaysia. However, the ecological characteristics and the pathogenesis of duck TMUV are largely unknown. We report the construction of full-length cDNA clone of duck TMUV strain JXSP. The virus genome was reverse transcribed, amplified as seven overlapping fragments and successively ligated into the low copy number vector pWSK29 under the control of a T7 promoter. Transfection of BHK-21 cells with the transcribed RNA from the full-length cDNA clone resulted in production of highly infectious progeny virus. In vitro growth characteristics in BHK-21 cells and virulence in ducklings and BALB/c mice were similar for the rescued and parental viruses. This stable infectious cDNA clone will be a valuable tool for studying the genetic determinants of duck TMUV.