Colorado Tick Fever Virus: Quantification, Propagation, Storage, and Detection.

Colorado tick fever virus (CTFV) is a double-stranded RNA virus in the family Reoviridae. CTFV is the causative agent of Colorado tick fever (CTF), a febrile illness that can have mild to severe manifestations. CTFV is an underreported and underrecognized virus; similarly, the literature concerning neglected tick-borne viruses lacks standard protocols for viral research. Here we describe protocols and procedures for CTFV studies, including the quantification of the virus through viral plaque assay, generation and storage of CTFV stocks, and detection with reverse transcription-quantitative PCR (RT-qPCR).