A New Fort Crockett Virus Strain Isolated from Culicoides in Yunnan Province, China, near the China-Laos-Vietnam Border.

In July 2016, a virus strain (JCC12-12) was isolated from Culicoides collected in Jiangcheng County, Yunnan Province, China. The JCC12-12 virus was sequenced using next-generation sequencing; a 9294-nt-long sequence with a G + C content of 35.63% was obtained by assembly and splicing. Phylogenetic analysis of the RNA-dependent RNA polymerase domain (RdRP) amino acid sequence showed that JCC12-12 virus shared the evolutionary branch of the Fort Crockett virus strain 22503a, isolated from Paracoccus marginatus in the United States; these viruses shared 87.5% homology, while the nucleotide homology of the JCC12-12 virus with other negeviruses was <50.8%, suggesting that JCC12-12 virus isolated from Culicoides was Fort Crockett virus. This is the first report of the Fort Crockett virus isolated from Culicoides.