[1] The virus was isolated from pooled ticks (Amblyomma gemma and Rhipicephalus pulchellus) collected from cattle hides in Nairobi, Kenya, in October 1999.

The genome is composed a single strand of negative sense RNA in three parts - small (S), medium (M0 and large(L).

The L segment RNA is 12,330 nucleotides (nt) in length and encodes one open reading frame (ORF) of 4,050 amino acids.

This open reading frame encodes several modules including a RNA-dependent RNA polymerase.

It contains a unique potential N-gly site in the Gn and Gc glycoprotein regions at amino acids 612 and 1514 respectively.