title: Phylogenetic analysis of Croatian orf viruses isolated from sheep and goats.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  The Orf virus (ORFV) is the prototype of the parapoxvirus genus and it primarily causes contagious ecthyma in goats, sheep, and other ruminants worldwide. In this paper, we described the sequence and phylogenetic analysis of the B2L gene of ORFV from two natural outbreaks: i) in autochthonous Croatian Cres-breed sheep and ii) on small family goat farm.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Sequence and phylogenetic analyses of the ORFV B2L gene showed that the Cro-Cres-12446/09 and Cro-Goat-11727/10 were not clustered together. Cro-Cres-12446/09 shared the highest similarity with ORFV NZ2 from New Zealand, and Ena from Japan; Cro-Goat-11727/10 was closest to the HuB from China and Taiping and Hoping from Taiwan.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Distinct ORFV strains are circulating in Croatia. Although ORFV infections are found ubiquitously wherever sheep and goats are farmed in Croatia, this is the first information on genetic relatedness of any Croatian ORFV with other isolates around the world.
authors.affiliation: Department of Virology, Croatian Veterinary Institute, Savska cesta 143, 10000 Zagreb, Croatia. ilojkic@veinst.hr
authors.forename: Ivana
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Lojkic
authors.forename: Zeljko
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Cac
authors.forename: Ana
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Beck
authors.forename: Tomislav
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Bedekovic
authors.forename: Zeljko
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Cvetnic
authors.forename: Branko
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Sostaric
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D016000:Cluster Analysis; D017523:Croatia; D004279:DNA, Viral / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics; D004474:Ecthyma, Contagious / Q000821:virology*; D006041:Goats / Q000821:virology*; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D009923:Orf virus / Q000145:classification* / Q000235:genetics* / Q000302:isolation & purification; D010802:Phylogeny; D017422:Sequence Analysis, DNA; D017385:Sequence Homology; D012756:Sheep / Q000821:virology*; D014764:Viral Proteins / Q000235:genetics
chemical_list: D004279:DNA, Viral; D014764:Viral Proteins