Genetic typing of ruminant pestivirus strains from Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland

A study was performed to investigate the genotypes and sub-groups of pestiviruses present in ruminants in Ireland. These comprised one ovine and eighteen bovine pestiviruses from Northern Ireland and six bovine pestiviruses from the Republic of Ireland. A 288 base pair (bp) portion of the 5'-non coding region (5'-NCR) from each of 25 pestiviruses collected over a period of 31 years was amplified by reverse-transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) and the product directly sequenced. From each pestivirus, nucleotide sequences corresponding to bases 130 to 374 of the 5'-NCR Of NADL were aligned and compared with each other and with the corresponding sequences of a number of reference, field or vaccinal strains of BVDV types I and II. border disease virus and classical swine fever virus. All of the 25 sequenced pestiviruses were found to be BVDV, type Ia. These were closely related to the constituent viruses of the 2 inactivated vaccines currently licenced for use in Northern Ireland and to recent bovine isolates from England. (C) 2001 Harcourt Publishers Ltd.