Genotypes of pestivirus RNA detected in live virus vaccines for human use

Live virus vaccines for human use, 29 monovalent vaccines against measles, mumps, rubella or polio, eight polyvalent vaccines against measles-mumps-ru bella and one bacterial polyvalent vaccine against Streptococcus pneumoniae , were tested by reverse transcriptase-nested PCR for the presence of petiv irus or pestivirus RNA. Twenty-four samples were selected from European man ufacturers, ten were from U.S.A. and four from Japan. Five (13.1%) out of 3 8 tested samples were positive for pestivirus RNA. Three vaccines (rubella and two measles) were from Europe and two (mumps and rubella) from Japan. T he 5 ' -untranslated genomic region of the contaminant pestivirus RNA were amplified by reverse transcription-PCR and sequenced. Analyses based on pri mary nucleotide sequence homology and on secondary structures, characterist ic to genotypes, revealed that the cDNA sequences belonged to bovine viral diarrhea virus (BVDV). A cDNA sequence, detected from one measles sample, b elonged to BVDV-1b genotype. Pestiviral cDNA detected from the Japanese mum ps and rubella vaccine samples, belonged to the BVDV genotypes 1a and 1c, r espectively. Analysis on two cDNA sequences detected from measles and rubel la vaccine samples from Europe showed their appurtenance to a new genotype, BVDV-1d. These findings indicate that contamination by animal pestivirus m ay occur in biological products for human use.