Abstract:
The mosquito-borne flavivirus, Kedougou virus (KEDV), first isolated in Senegal in 1972, is
genetically related to dengue, Zika (ZIKV) and Spondweni viruses (SPOV). Serological surveillance
studies in Senegal and isolation of KEDV in the Central African Republic indicate occurrence of KEDV
infections in humans, but to date, no disease has been reported. Here, we assembled the codingcomplete genome of a 1958 isolate of KEDV from a pool of Aedes circumluteolus mosquitoes collected
in Ndumu, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. The AR1071 Ndumu KEDV isolate bears 80.51% pairwise
nucleotide identity and 93.34% amino acid identity with the prototype DakAar-D1470 strain and was
co-isolated with SPOV through intracerebral inoculation of suckling mice and passage on VeroE6 cells.
This historical isolate expands the known geographic and temporal range of this relatively unknown
flavivirus, aiding future temporal phylogenetic calibration and diagnostic assay refinement.
