GENOTYPIC ANALYSIS OF THE 5'-UNTRANSLATED REGION OF A PESTIVIRUS STRAIN ISOLATED FROM HUMAN-LEUKOCYTES

The 5'-untranslated genomic region of the pestivirus strain Europa, or iginated in human leucocytes and previously identified as bovine diarr hea virus (BVDV), was amplified by reverse transcription-PCR and seque nced. Analyses based on primary nucleotide sequence homology and on se condary palindromic sequence structures characteristic to genotypes re vealed that this human isolate should be assigned to a novel genotype of pestivirus, type Ic. This newly emerged genotype was related to, bu t distinguishable from the three known BVDV genotypes, Ia, Ib and II. Three other bovine field isolates of BVDV originated from Germany were also found to belong to this new genotype Ic. Within pestivirus genot ype Ic strains, the overall nucleotide sequence homology was 95-96%, a nd 88-92%, 88-90% and 77-79% with the other BVDV genotypes Ia, Ib and II, respectively. With the strains from border disease virus (genotype III) and hog cholera virus (genotype IV), homologies were less than 7 5%.