Emergence of a Novel Reassortant Strain of Bluetongue Serotype 6 in Israel, 2017: Clinical Manifestations of the Disease and Molecular Characterization

Viruses

Shachar Ertracht¹  Itzik Abramovitz²  Benny Sharir²  Eitan Tiomkin²  Gabriel Kenigswald²  Ily Shlamovitz²  Itay Assis²  JosephSeffi Varsano³  VelizarY. Bumbarov⁴  Yevgeny Khinich⁴  Natalia Golender⁴  Avi Eldar⁴  Erez Yonay⁵  Marcelo Ehrlich⁶ 

[1] Dr. Amos Bareli LTD, Kiryat Tiv’on 3605141, Israel;Hachaklait veterinary services, Caesarea 3088900, Israel;Indi-Vet Ltd., Ashdod 7764933, Israel;Kimron Veterinary Institute, Division of Virology, Beit Dagan 50250, Israel;Lamikne veterinary services, Kiryat Tiv’on 3603247, Israel;School of Molecular Cell Biology Biotechnology, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv 69978, Israel;

关键词: bluetongue virus;    orbivirus;    Reoviridae;    sequencing;    phylogenetic analysis;    diagnostics;    spread;    descriptive epidemiology;   

DOI  :  10.3390/v11070633

来源: DOAJ

【 摘 要 】

Reassortment contributes to the evolution of RNA viruses with segmented genomes, including Bluetongue virus (BTV). Recently, co-circulation of natural and vaccine BTV variants in Europe, and their ensuing reassortment, were proposed to promote appearance of novel European BTV strains, with potential implications for pathogenicity, spread and vaccination policies. Similarly, the geographical features of the Mediterranean basin, which spans over portions of three continents, may facilitate the appearance of clinically relevant reassortants via co-circulation of BTV strains of African, Asian and European origins. In August−October 2017, BTV serotype 6 (BTV-6) was identified in young animals exhibiting classical clinical signs of Bluetongue (BT) at Israeli sheep and cattle farms. Sequencing and pairwise analysis of this Israeli BTV-6 isolate revealed the closest sequence homology of its serotype-defining Segment 2 was with that of South African reference BTV-6 strain 5011 (93.88% identity). In contrast, the other viral segments showed highest homology (97.0%−99.47% identity) with BTV-3, -4 and -9 of Mediterranean and African origins. Specifically, four viral segments were nearly identical (99.13%−99.47%), with Tunisian and Italian BTV-3 strains (TUN2016 and SAD2018, correspondingly). Together, our data suggest that Mediterranean co-circulation and reassortment of BTV-3 and BTV-6 drove the emergence of a novel and virulent BTV-6 strain

【 授权许可】

Unknown