The genus Pestivirus of the family Flaviviridae comprises four species, nam
ely Bovine viral diarrhea virus-1 (BVDV-1), BVDV-2, Border disease virus (B
DV), and Classical swine fever virus (CSFV). Comparative analyses of partia
l sequences have suggested that pestivirus isolates from giraffe (Giraffe-1
) and reindeer (Reindeer-1) are distinct from the established species (Bech
er et al., Virology 262, 64-71, 1999). In this study, we report the complet
e genomic sequences of pest[virus strains Giraffe-1 and Reindeer-1. Compara
tive sequence analyses revealed considerable differences among Giraffe-1, R
eindeer-1, and the currently recognized pestivirus species. Phylogenetic an
alysis of the complete coding sequences of these two strains, along with 13
other sequences representing the four established species, indicated that
CSFV BDV, and Reindeer-1 have bifurcated from one common branch and BVDV-1
and BVDV-2 from another. In the former branch BDV and the pestivirus from r
eindeer are more similar to each other than to CSFV. The giraffe pestivirus
is equally distinct from both major branches. In addition, the antigenic r
elatedness of pestivirus isolates covering the observed major genetic group
s was studied by cross-neutralization assays. A clustering procedure on the
basis of antigenic differences indicated the presence of six major groups
corresponding to the genetically defined groups, Taken together, the result
s of our analyses addressing both nucleotide sequence relatedness and serol
ogical relatedness argue for the inclusion of Giraffe-1 and Reindeer-1 as t
he first members of two separate novel species within the genus Pestivirus.
(C) 2001 Academic Press.