Molecular epidemiology of a large classical swine fever epidemic in the European Union in 1997-1998

A big epidemic of classical swine fever (CSF) occurred in the European Comm unity in 1997. The first case was reported at the beginning of January 1997 from Germany. The disease presumably spread to the Netherlands, and from t here to Italy, Spain and eventually to Belgium. About 30 isolates from thes e outbreaks were analysed by comparison of the nucleotide sequence data gen erated from fragments of both the E2 glycoprotein gene (190 nucleotides) an d from the 5'-nontranslated region (5'-NTR; 150 nucleotides). By combining epidemiological data with genetic typing, it was found that the outbreaks w ere related and caused by a virus belonging to the genetic subgroup 2.1. As this type of virus had been reported infrequently in Europe and not at all since 1993, we postulate that it was newly introduced into the European Un ion (EW). (C) 2000 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.