Summary
We have recently shown that French small ruminant lentiviruses (SRLV) from sheep are more similar to Caprine Arthritis Encephalitis Virus (CAEV) than to visna maedi virus (VMV) in a conserved region of the pol gene. To extend these results, we have examined sequences from a variable region of the env gene in French SRLV. We found that they were nearly equally distant from both CAEV and VMV strains, suggesting a considerable divergence since the initial introduction of the virus. Analysis of separate clones from individual animals showed that some carry a population of variant viruses. The study of further pol gene sequences from both goats and sheep suggests that viral variants show little or no host species specificity. A phylogenetic tree of pol gene sequences confirmed the presence of a novel genotype of SRLV in France.
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Accepted January 10, 1997 Received August 12, 1996
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Leroux, C., Chastang, J., Greenland, T. et al. Genomic heterogeneity of small ruminant lentiviruses: existenceof heterogeneous populations in sheep and of the samelentiviral genotypes in sheep and goats. Arch. Virol. 142, 1125–1137 (1997). https://doi.org/10.1007/s007050050147
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s007050050147