The emergence and cross species transmission of newly discovered tick-borne Bunyavirus in China

•Bunyavirus isolated from Huaiyangshan mountains was named as Huaiyangshan virus.•Haemaphysalis longicornis ticks is the major vector for Huaiyangshan virus.•Domestic animals in endemic regions were widely infected by Huaiyangshan virus.•The clinical presentations of Huaiyangshan virus infection are similar to HFRS.•Ticks may spread the virus globally being on migrate birds.

A novel tick-borne Bunyavirus, discovered in China and later in South Korea and Japan, is now known as Huaiyangshan virus or severe fever with thrombocytopenia syndrome virus and has been identified as the causative agent of a hemorrhagic fever-like disease. Of five species of ticks carrying Huaiyangshan viruses, Haemaphysalis longicornis was the most abundant in regions where the virus was endemic. Its usual hosts (cattle, goats, dogs, rats and chickens) tested positive for Huaiyangshan virus RNA and had a high seroprevalence. The distribution of H. longicornis and the migratory routes of four wild fowl across China, South Korea and Japan are coincident. Thus a tick and migratory bird model for the transmission of the Huaiyangshan virus was proposed.