CHARACTERIZATION OF PSEUDORABIES VIRUS ISOLATED FROM WILD BOAR (SUS SCROFA)

Seroepidemiological evidence had suggested that pseudorabies (Aujeszky 's disease) virus (PrV) infections occur in the European wild boar pop ulation in eastern Germany, although attempts to isolate the causative agent had failed, In 1995 and 1996, five virus isolates were recovere d from latently infected wild boar originating from two regions where the disease was endemic. The isolates were identified as pry by immuno fluorescence and neutralisation with specific sera and grouped as PrV type I. Compared with reference strains and pry isolates obtained from domestic animals in the same region, considerable differences in the DNA patterns were detected. In particular, two additional larger BamHI -DNA fragments migrating in agarose gel electrophoresis between fragme nts 3 and 4 were observed, accompanied by the loss of fragments 5, 10 and 12, Southern blot hybridisation with fragment-specific DNA probes identified the larger fragments as fusions of BamHI-fragments 5 and 10 , and 5 and 12, respectively, due to a loss of a BamHI-site in the inv erted repeat regions, This distinctive fragment pattern has so far not been observed in PrV isolates from domestic pigs in Germany.