TY - JOUR
T1 - Evolution of rabbit haemorrhagic disease virus (RHDV) in the European rabbit (Oryctolagus cuniculus) from the Iberian Peninsula
AU - Muller, A.
AU - Freitas, J.
AU - Silva, E.
AU - Le Gall-Reculé, G.
AU - Zwingelstein, F.
AU - Abrantes, J.
AU - Esteves, P. J.
AU - Alves, P. C.
AU - van der Loo, W.
AU - Kolodziejek, J.
AU - Nowotny, N.
AU - Thompson, G.
N1 - Funding Information:
This study was supported by the Foundation for Science and Technology Portugal: Project POCTI/BIA-BDE/61553/2004 and grants SFRH/BD/31093/2006, SFRH/BD/31048/2006, SFRH/BPD/27021/2006 to A.M., J. A. and P. J. E., respectively. We are grateful to Dr. R. Soriguer (CSIC, Spain) for providing the RHDV sequences from Albacete and Alicante, and to Oporto City Council, in particular to Dr. A. Pereira, for providing the samples of the RHD outbreak of 2006. We thank the OIE Reference Laboratory in Brescia and in particular Dr. L. Capucci for the antigenic characterisation of the RHDV strain “Viseu”. We also thank the National Laboratory for Veterinary Investigation (LNIV, Delegação do Norte) for infrastructural support.
PY - 2009/3/30
Y1 - 2009/3/30
N2 - To date information on rabbit haemorrhagic disease virus (RHDV) in Spain and Portugal has been scarce, although the disease is endemic and continues to have a considerable impact on species conservation and hunting industry. We analysed RHDVs obtained between 1994 and 2007 at different geographic locations in Portugal (40 samples), Spain (3 samples) and France (4 samples) from wild European rabbits (Oryctolagus cuniculus) that succumbed to the disease. Phylogenetic analyses based on partial VP60 gene sequences allowed a grouping of these RHDVs into three groups, termed "Iberian" Groups IB1, IB2 and IB3. Interestingly, these three Iberian groups clustered separately, though not far from earlier RHDVs of Genogroup 1 (containing e.g., strain "AST89"), but clearly distinct from globally described RHDV strains of Genogroups 2-6. This result, supported by a bootstrap value of 76%, gives rise to the hypothesis that the virus evolved independently since its introduction to wild rabbit populations on the Iberian Peninsula, with the Pyrenees acting as a natural barrier to rabbit and hence to virus dispersal. No differences were observed in RHDV sequences obtained from geographic regions where the rabbit subspecies O. c. algirus prevails compared with those obtained from O. c. cuniculus.
AB - To date information on rabbit haemorrhagic disease virus (RHDV) in Spain and Portugal has been scarce, although the disease is endemic and continues to have a considerable impact on species conservation and hunting industry. We analysed RHDVs obtained between 1994 and 2007 at different geographic locations in Portugal (40 samples), Spain (3 samples) and France (4 samples) from wild European rabbits (Oryctolagus cuniculus) that succumbed to the disease. Phylogenetic analyses based on partial VP60 gene sequences allowed a grouping of these RHDVs into three groups, termed "Iberian" Groups IB1, IB2 and IB3. Interestingly, these three Iberian groups clustered separately, though not far from earlier RHDVs of Genogroup 1 (containing e.g., strain "AST89"), but clearly distinct from globally described RHDV strains of Genogroups 2-6. This result, supported by a bootstrap value of 76%, gives rise to the hypothesis that the virus evolved independently since its introduction to wild rabbit populations on the Iberian Peninsula, with the Pyrenees acting as a natural barrier to rabbit and hence to virus dispersal. No differences were observed in RHDV sequences obtained from geographic regions where the rabbit subspecies O. c. algirus prevails compared with those obtained from O. c. cuniculus.
KW - Iberian Peninsula
KW - Oryctolagus cuniculus
KW - Phylogeny
KW - RHDV
KW - Wild rabbit
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U2 - 10.1016/j.vetmic.2008.09.057
DO - 10.1016/j.vetmic.2008.09.057
M3 - Article
C2 - 18977620
AN - SCOPUS:62149127401
SN - 0378-1135
VL - 135
SP - 368
EP - 373
JO - Veterinary Microbiology
JF - Veterinary Microbiology
IS - 3-4
ER -