Research by Edward S. Sylvester and coworkers in the 1960s–80s showed SYVV was propagated in its insect vector, the black currant aphid (Hyperomyzus lactucae).

The plant disease reduced in frequency after around 1990 and apparently disappeared; the virus was rediscovered in Kern County, California, in 2018.

[1] Historically assigned to the paraphyletic genus Nucleorhabdovirus, SYVV was reclassified in 2019–20 within the new genus of Betanucleorhabdovirus, together with Sonchus yellow net virus, Datura yellow vein virus and other newly categorised species.

The formal species name has changed from Sowthistle yellow vein virus to Sowthistle yellow vein nucleorhabdovirus (2015), then Sowthistle yellow vein betanucleorhabdovirus (2019–20), and then Betanucleorhabdovirus venasonchi (2021–22).

[3] SYVV was genomically characterised in 2020 from the 2018 Kern County isolate.