Since 1998, nine bluetongue virus (BTV) strains from serotypes 1, 2, 4, 8, 9 and 16 have invaded Europe, killing >2 million animals (mainly sheep). Live vaccine strains of BTV-2, 4, 9 and 16 have also been used in the region. The BTV genome is composed of ten linear-segments of dsRNA, and events in Europe have provided opportunities for different strains to exchange/reassort genome segments, generating novel progeny-viruses. Genome segment 2 (Seg-2) encodes outer capsid protein VP2, the primary determinant of virus serotype, while Seg-5 encodes NS1, which forms 'tubules' within the cell-cytoplasm. Seg-2 and Seg-5 from 15 European isolates, and vaccine/reference strains, of BTV-2 and BTV-16, were sequenced. Isolates from the same serotype showed >92

作者：Carrie A, Batten；Sushila, Maan；Andrew E, Shaw；Narender S, Maan；Peter P C, Mertens

来源：Virus research 2008 年 137卷 1期