MOLECULAR EPIDEMIOLOGY OF RABBIT HEMORRHAGIC-DISEASE VIRUS OUTBREAKS IN FRANCE DURING 1988 TO 1995

In order to evaluate genetic variation between rabbit haemorrhagic dis ease virus (RHDV) isolates and to derive phylogenetic relationships, 5 6 virus isolates collected from various parts of France over a 7 year period (1988 to 1995) were examined, Analyses were carried out by dire ct nucleotide sequencing of PCR fragments of three genomic regions enc oding the capsid protein (VP60) (regions A and B) and a non-structural protein (region C), Multiple sequence alignments revealed maximum nuc leotide divergence of 7.6, 9.4 and 8.7% for regions A, B and C, respec tively, indicating a high level of conservation between isolates. Irre spective of the genomic region analysed, phylogenetic analyses carried out using various methods allowed the identification of three genogro ups; distribution of isolates within these genogroups appears to be mo re related to the year of their collection than to their geographical origin, The possible evolution of RHDV is discussed.