PHYLOGENETIC ANALYSIS OF PESTIVIRUSES FROM DOMESTIC AND WILD RUMINANTS

Infections with pestiviruses occur in cattle, sheep, pigs and also in numerous other ungulate species, In the present study, pestiviruses fr om goat, buffalo, deer and giraffe were analysed at the molecular leve l; unusual strains from cattle and pigs were also included, A phylogen etic analysis of the respective pestiviruses was undertaken on the bas is of a fragment from the 5' noncoding region as well as the gene enco ding autoprotease N-pro, Statistical analyses of the respective phylog enetic trees based on the 5' NCR revealed low confidence levels for mo st of the branches, while the structure of the tree based on the N-pro gene was supported by high bootstrap values, Accordingly, the isolate s from goat, buffalo and deer can be grouped together with bovine vira l diarrhoea virus (pestivirus type 1); within this genotype three subg roups and one disparate virus have been identified. One isolate from p ig and one from cattle belong to the group of 'true' border disease vi rus (pestivirus type 3), which can be further subdivided into two majo r subgroups. Interestingly, the giraffe isolate does not belong to one of the four established pestivirus genotypes, The phylogenetic analys is strongly suggests that genotype 1 pestiviruses occur world-wide in many ruminant species, Furthermore, phylogenetic trees based on the N- pro gene nucleotide sequences show that the respective sequences do no t segregate into discrete lineages based on host-species origin.