Bluetongue virus serotype 27: detection and characterization of two novel variants in Corsica, France Schulz, Claudia and Bréard, Emmanuel and Sailleau, Corinne and Jenckel, Maria and Viarouge, Cyril and Vitour, Damien and Palmarini, Massimo and Gallois, Mélanie and Höper, Dirk and Hoffmann, Bernd and Beer, Martin and Zientara, Stéphan,, 97, 2073-2083 (2016), doi = https://doi.org/10.1099/jgv.0.000557, publicationName = Microbiology Society, issn = 0022-1317, abstract= During the compulsory vaccination programme against bluetongue virus serotype 1 (BTV-1) in Corsica (France) in 2014, a BTV strain belonging to a previously uncharacterized serotype (BTV-27) was isolated from asymptomatic goats. The present study describes the detection and molecular characterization of two additional distinct BTV-27 variants found in goats in Corsica in 2014 and 2015. The full coding genome of these two novel BTV-27 variants show high homology (90–93 % nucleotide/93–95 % amino acid) with the originally described BTV-27 isolate from Corsican goats in 2014. These three variants constitute the novel serotype BTV-27 (‘BTV-27/FRA2014/v01 to v03’). Phylogenetic analyses with the 26 other established BTV serotypes revealed the closest relationship to BTV-25 (SWI2008/01) (80 % nucleotide/86 % amino acid) and to BTV-26 (KUW2010/02) (73–74 % nucleotide/80–81 % amino acid). However, highest sequence homologies between individual segments of BTV-27/FRA2014/v01–v03 with BTV-25 and BTV-26 vary. All three variants share the same segment 2 nucleotype with BTV-25. Neutralization assays of anti-BTV27/FRA2014/v01–v03 sera with a reassortant virus containing the outer capsid proteins of BTV-25 (BTV1VP2/VP5 BTV25) further confirmed that BTV-27 represents a distinct BTV serotype. Relationships between the variants and with BTV-25 and BTV-26, hypotheses about their origin, reassortment events and evolution are discussed., language=, type=