Phylogenetic analysis of the haemagglutinin gene of canine distemper virus strains detected from breeding foxes, raccoon dogs and minks in China.
Canine distemper virus (CDV) infects a variety of carnivores, including wild and domestic Canidae. Genetic/antigenic heterogeneity has been observed among the various CDV strains, notably in the haemagglutinin (H) gene, that appears as a good target to gather epidemiological information. Based on sequence analysis of the H gene, wild-type CDV strains cluster into distinct geographic lineages (genotypes), irrespective of the species of isolation. The sequence of the H gene of 28 CDV strains detected from both vaccinated and non-vaccinated breeding foxes, raccoon dogs and minks from different geographical areas of China during the years 2004-2008 was determined. All the CDV strains but two (strains HL and HLJ2) were characterized as Asia-1 genotype and were highly similar to each other (96.2-99.7% at the amino acid [aa] level) and to other Asia-1 strains (96.1-99.5% aa) previously detected in China. The CDV strains HL and HLJ2 were both collected from foxes in Heilongjiang province in 2005. Strain HL resembled CDVs of the Arctic genotype (GR88-like) and displayed high aa identity (98.0%) to the Chinese canine strain Liu. By converse, strain HLJ2 was barely related to CDVs of the Asia-2 genotype (88.7-90.3% aa identity), and could represent a novel CDV genotype, tentatively proposed as Asia-3. These results suggest that at least three different CDV genotypes, distantly related (81.8-91.6% aa identity) to the vaccine strains, Onderstepoort-like (America-1 genotype), are currently circulating in breeding foxes, raccoon dogs and minks in China, and that the genotype Asia-1 is predominant. Whether the diversity between wild-type CDVs and the vaccine strains may affect, to some extent, the efficacy of the vaccines deserves further investigations.
Zhao
Jian-Jun
JJ
Division of Zoonoses, Institute of Special Economic Animal and Plant Sciences, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences CAAS, 15 Luming Street, Jilin 132109, China. zhaojianjun1211@163.com
Yan
Xi-Jun
XJ
Chai
Xiu-Li
XL
Martella
Vito
V
Luo
Guo-Liang
GL
Zhang
Hai-Ling
HL
Gao
Han
H
Liu
Ying-Xue
YX
Bai
Xue
X
Zhang
Lei
L
Chen
Tao
T
Xu
Lei
L
Zhao
Chun-Fei
CF
Wang
Feng-Xue
FX
Shao
Xi-Qun
XQ
Wu
Wei
W
Cheng
Shi-Peng
SP
D000818:Animals; D001947:Breeding; D002335:Carnivora / Q000821:virology*; D002681:China; D004216:Distemper / Q000235:genetics / Q000821:virology*; D004217:Distemper Virus, Canine / Q000145:classification* / Q000235:genetics* / Q000276:immunology / Q000302:isolation & purification; D005589:Foxes; D006389:Hemagglutinins, Viral / Q000235:genetics*; D008907:Mink; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D010802:Phylogeny; D046031:Raccoon Dogs; D017386:Sequence Homology, Amino Acid
D006389:Hemagglutinins, Viral