The virus appears in southern and central England.

It is transmitted by beetles Lema melanopa and Lema lichenis and is common in crops of cocksfoot and cocksfoot/legume mixtures.

[1] CfMV's P1 protein, required for infection, has been found to interfere with RNAi pathways in plants species such as Nicotiana benthamiana and Nicotiana tabacum.

[2] The polyprotein coat of CfMV is made up of two proteins, encoded by overlapping open reading frames (2a and 2b) which are transcribed through a ribosomal frameshift mechanism.

[3] This mechanism is reliant upon a small stem-loop structure and a 'slippery' repeat sequence which allows programmed ribosomal frameshifting.