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Complete coding sequences of European brown hare syndrome virus (EBHSV) strains isolated in 1982 in Sweden

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Abstract

European brown hare syndrome (EBHS) is characterised by high mortality of European brown hares (Lepus europaeus) and mountain hares (Lepus timidus). European brown hare syndrome virus (EBHSV) and the closely related rabbit haemorrhagic disease virus (RHDV) comprise the genus Lagovirus, family Caliciviridae. In contrast to RHDV, which is well studied, with more than 30 complete genome sequences available, the only complete genome sequence available for EBHSV was obtained from a strain isolated in 1989 in France. EBHS was originally diagnosed in Sweden in 1980. Here, we report the complete coding sequences of two EBHSV strains isolated from European brown hares that died with liver lesions characteristic of EBHS in Sweden in 1982. These sequences represent the oldest complete coding sequences of EBHSV isolated from the original area of virus diagnosis. The genomic organisation is similar to that of the published French sequence. Comparison with this sequence revealed several nucleotide substitutions, corresponding to 6 % divergence. At the amino acid level, the Swedish strains are 2 % different from the French strain. Most amino acid substitutions were located within the major capsid protein VP60, but when considering the amino acid sequence length of each protein, VP10 is the protein with the highest percentage of amino acid differences. The same result was obtained when Swedish strains were compared. This evolutionary pattern has not been described previously for members of the genus Lagovirus.

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Acknowledgments

The Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT) supported the doctoral fellowship of Ana M. Lopes (SFRH/BD/78738/2011) and the postdoctoral fellowship of Joana Abrantes (SFRH/BPD/73512/2010). The FCT Project PTDC/CVT/108490/2008 supported this work.

Conflict of interest

None of the authors has any personal or financial conflict of interest that would bias the results of this study.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. CIBIO-UP, Centro de Investigação em Biodiversidade e Recursos Genéticos, Universidade do Porto, InBIO, Laboratório Associado, Campus Agrário de Vairão, Rua Padre Armando Quintas, Vairão, Portugal

    Ana M. Lopes, Pedro J. Esteves & Joana Abrantes

  2. Departamento de Zoologia e Antropologia, Faculdade de Ciências da Universidade do Porto, Porto, Portugal

    Ana M. Lopes

  3. INSERM, U892, Université de Nantes, Nantes, France

    Ana M. Lopes & Joana Abrantes

  4. Department of Pathology and Wildlife Disease, National Veterinary Institute (SVA), Uppsala, Sweden

    Dolores Gavier-Widén

  5. Department of Biomedical Sciences and Veterinary Public Health, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU), Uppsala, Sweden

    Dolores Gavier-Widén

  6. Anses, Ploufragan-Plouzané Laboratory, Avian and Rabbit Virology, Immunology and Parasitology Unit, Ploufragan, France

    Ghislaine Le Gall-Reculé

  7. European University of Brittany, Rennes, France

    Ghislaine Le Gall-Reculé

  8. CITS, Centro de Investigação em Tecnologias da Saúde, IPSN, CESPU, Gandra, Portugal

    Pedro J. Esteves

Authors
  1. Ana M. Lopes
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  2. Dolores Gavier-Widén
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  3. Ghislaine Le Gall-Reculé
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  4. Pedro J. Esteves
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  5. Joana Abrantes
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Joana Abrantes.

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Lopes, A.M., Gavier-Widén, D., Le Gall-Reculé, G. et al. Complete coding sequences of European brown hare syndrome virus (EBHSV) strains isolated in 1982 in Sweden. Arch Virol 158, 2193–2196 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00705-013-1714-7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00705-013-1714-7

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