title: Molecular epidemiology of Aleutian mink disease virus in Finland.
abstract: Aleutian mink disease virus (AMDV) is a parvovirus that causes an immune complex-mediated disease in minks. To gain a more detailed view of the molecular epidemiology of mink AMDV in Finland, we phylogenetically analysed 14 new Finnish strains from 5 farms and all 40 strains with corresponding sequences available in GenBank. A part of the major non-structural (NS1) protein gene was amplified and analysed phylogenetically. A rooted nucleotide tree was constructed using the maximum parsimony method. The strains described in this study showed 86-100% nucleotide identity and were nearly identical on each farm. The ratio of synonymous to non-synonymous substitutions was approximately 2.7, indicating a mild purifying selection. Phylogenetic analysis confirmed that AMDV strains form three groups (I-III), all of which contained Finnish strains. The tree inferred that the three lineages of AMDV have been introduced to Finland independently. The analysis suggested that AMDV strains do not cluster into genotypes based on geographical origin, year of isolation or pathogenicity. Based on these data, the molecular clock is not applicable to AMDV, and within this gene area no recombination was detected.
authors.affiliation: Division of Microbiology and Epidemiology, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, University of Helsinki, Finland. anna.knuuttila@helsinki.fi
authors.forename: Anna
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Knuuttila
authors.forename: Nathalie
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Uzcátegui
authors.forename: Johanna
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Kankkonen
authors.forename: Olli
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Vapalahti
authors.forename: Paula
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Kinnunen
mesh_terms: D000453:Aleutian Mink Disease / Q000453:epidemiology*; D000818:Animals; D001483:Base Sequence; D005387:Finland / Q000453:epidemiology; D008907:Mink; D017720:Molecular Epidemiology; D017992:Parvovirus / Q000235:genetics*; D010802:Phylogeny; D017361:Viral Nonstructural Proteins / Q000235:genetics
chemical_list: D017361:Viral Nonstructural Proteins