title: Novel flavivirus or new lineage of West Nile virus, central Europe.
abstract: A flavivirus (strain 97-103) was isolated from Culex pipens mosquitoes in 1997 following floods in South Moravia, Czech Republic. The strain exhibited close antigenic relationship to West Nile virus (WNV) prototype strain Eg-101 in a cross-neutralization test. In this study, mouse pathogenicity characteristics and the complete nucleotide and putative amino acid sequences of isolate 97-103, named Rabensburg virus (RabV) after a nearby Austrian city, were determined. RabV shares only 75%-77% nucleotide identity and 89%-90% amino acid identity with representative strains of WNV lineages 1 and 2. Another RabV strain (99-222) was isolated in the same location 2 years later; it showed >99% nucleotide identity to strain 97-103. Phylogenetic analyses of RabV, WNV strains, and other members of the Japanese encephalitis virus (JEV) complex clearly demonstrated that RabV is either a new (third) lineage of WNV or a novel flavivirus of the JEV group.
authors.affiliation: University of Veterinary Medicine, A-1210 Vienna, Austria.
authors.forename: Tamás
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Bakonyi
authors.forename: Zdenek
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Hubálek
authors.forename: Ivo
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Rudolf
authors.forename: Norbert
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Nowotny
mesh_terms: D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D000818:Animals; D000833:Animals, Suckling; D001483:Base Sequence; D018153:Czech Republic; D005260:Female; D005416:Flavivirus / Q000145:classification* / Q000235:genetics / Q000302:isolation & purification; D018177:Flavivirus Infections / Q000821:virology*; D051379:Mice; D008813:Mice, Inbred ICR; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D010802:Phylogeny; D012367:RNA, Viral / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics; D020133:Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction; D016415:Sequence Alignment; D013047:Specific Pathogen-Free Organisms; D014774:Virulence
chemical_list: D012367:RNA, Viral