The BTV genome is formed by 10 segments. Segment 9 contains an open reading frame (ORF) between nucleotides 182 and 418 ( Figure 1A ) in position +1 with respect to the major ORF expressing VP6 [29] . In silico analysis showed that this extra ORF is highly conserved and encodes a putative protein of 77-79 amino acid residues. A stretch of 11 basic amino acid residues is present in the N terminal portion of the protein (residues 3 to 20). In Figure 1A) .