Tkachev et al.
New genetic lineage within the Siberian subtype of tick-borne encephalitis virus found in Western Siberia, Russia.
Infect. Genet. Evol. 2017, 56: 36-43
A new TBE virus strain has been isolated from Ixodes pavlovskyi and together with two other strains was separated into a new lineage tentatively named Obskaya based on genome and polyprotein sequence. While this strain has a reduced intracerebral activity in laboratory mice, its pathogenicity in humans in unknown. It is hypothesized that Obskaya-like viruses belong to a group of relict virus strains substituted later by other TBE virus strains.