Genomic analysis of Salehabad virus obtained from the field after a 64-year silence

This study reports the first re-isolation of a wild-type Salehabad virus (SALV) since 1959, from a pool of male sand flies collected in Türkiye in August 2023. The isolate and the 1959 prototype strain shared 86-92% nucleotide identity across the four coding sequences but 95-99% amino acid identity; for the L protein, 12% nucleotide divergence corresponded to 1% amino acid divergence. Because male sand flies do not blood-feed, this isolation indicates transmission between sand flies by a route other than blood-feeding. These findings highlight the cryptic circulation of SALV and underscore the importance of monitoring historically overlooked phleboviruses.