THE GENOTYPE OF AUJESZKYS-DISEASE VIRUSES ISOLATED IN ARGENTINA

Genomes of four Argentine isolates of Aujeszky's disease virus (ADV) ( Rio Cuarto/79, Mercedes, Chanar Ladeado-7 and Chanar Ladeado-15) from pigs were characterized and compared with four ADV strains obtained fr om U.S.A. (Indiana-S), Sweden (Sweden 66), France (Alfort) and Japan ( Yamagata-S81) by restriction endonuclease (RE) analysis. Although thre e Argentine isolates were classified into type I of BamHI cleavage pat tern, one isolate, Mercedes, belonged to type II, according to the cla ssification by Herrmann et al. [6]. Since this type II virus was first isolated in 1981, no outbreak of ADV infection by this type has so fa r been reported in Argentina. This may imply that the immediate measur es by total slaughter of pigs in the farm led successful eradication o f the type II ADV infection in Argentina. This report is the first epi demiological study using RE analysis on ADV strains in this country.