ABSTRACT
Members of California serogroup are enveloped, segmented, negative-sense, ssRNA viruses belonging to the genus Orthobunyavirus, family Bunyaviridae, which consists of four vertebrate-infecting genera (i.e., Orthobunyavirus, Hantavirus, Nairovirus, and Phlebovirus) and a plant-infecting genus (Tospovirus). Being the largest and most complex in the Bunyaviridae family, the genus Orthobunyavirus accounts for 174 of the 330 viruses identied within the four vertebrate infecting genera and 60 of these 174 viruses are pathogenic to humans [1,2].
