Blueberry (Vaccinium spp.) is an important berry crop whose economic importance in Germany has increased significantly in recent years, with a production of 11,301 tonnes in 2020 (Anonymous, 2021). About a dozen viruses have been reported infecting blueberry and most were originally found in North America (Martin et al., 2012). The diseases caused by these viruses are very diverse, some viruses cause no symptoms while others are associated with dieback of the plants. Unusual leaf symptoms were observed on four plants in a blueberry crop (cv. Huron) in North-Rhine Westphalia in July 2020, which had been planted in 2012. Symptoms were unevenly distributed over affected bushes with some individual or groups of leaves showing yellowish-green mottle or mosaic patterns (Figures 1, 2) and some individual shoots without symptoms. This symptom phenotype is indicative of blueberry mosaic disease, known for more than 60 years in the USA. In 2014, the disease was associated with Blueberry mosaic associated virus (BlMaV, genus Ophiovirus) (Thekke-Veetil et al., 2014). In Europe it occurs in Slovenia and Turkey (Thekke-Veetil et al., 2015; Çağlayan et al., 2021). To verify the identity of the suspected pathogen, an Illumina NexteraXT library was prepared from total RNA extracted from a symptomatic sample (QIAGEN RNeasy Mini Kit, Germany) and sequenced on a NextSeq instrument as paired-end reads, using the Illumina Mid-Output Kit (2 × 151 bp). The raw reads were trimmed and de novo assembled with Geneious Prime v. 2021.0.1, using an in-house established workflow. A near complete genome sequence of all three genomic RNAs of BlMaV was assembled. In comparison with reference sequences of BlMaV (GenBank Accession Nos. NC_036635, NC_024476 and NC_036634, RNA1, 2 and 3 respectively), RNA1 (OK181783) had 95.4%, RNA2 (OK181784) 90.1% and RNA3 (OK181785) 94.5% nucleotide (nt) sequence identity, indicating the presence of a BlMaV isolate. In June 2021, conspicuous mosaic symptoms were observed on about 30% of the plants of a blueberry crop (cv. Bluecrop) in Lower Saxony which had been established in 1995. Symptoms had been observed there as early as 2013. Samples consisting of symptomatic leaves and bark tissue from the associated twigs were subjected to RT-PCR using the primer combination BlMaV-Fwd: 5′-ATGGCTGATTCGAGCAAACA-3′ and BlMaV-Rev: 5′- TTATTTGCGTCCACCCATAAAGA-3′, which target the nucleocapsid protein region encoded by RNA3. Two of the three bark samples tested positive for the virus, but the virus was not detected in leaf tissue of the same samples, indicating the presence of inhibitors and/or a virus concentration below the limit of detection. An amplicon from RT-PCR was sequenced (OK631928), revealing 93.2% nt sequence identity to a BlMaV reference sequence (NC_036634) and 93.7% nt sequence identity to the BlMaV isolate identified in North-Rhine Westphalia, indicating a deviant origin of the Lower Saxony isolate. BlMaV is transmitted by the Olpidium virulentus in Turkey and the USA (Shands et al., 2017; Çağlayan et al., 2021) and may contribute to local spread of the virus in other regions. However, the most likely pathway for introduction and further distribution of this virus disease is by plants for planting. Thus implementation of routine testing for BlMaV as part of a plant health certification of blueberry planting material may be important to prevent further spread and establishment of this virus disease in German and European blueberry plantings. Reference material of the BlMaV isolate from North-Rhine Westphalia is available as PV-1296 at the DSMZ Plant Virus Collection. This publication was supported by the European Virus Archive global (EVAg) project that has received funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 871029.