Inter‐serotype reassortment among epizootic haemorrhagic disease viruses in the United States

• Published in: Transboundary and emerging diseases Vol. 66; no. 5; pp. 1809 - 1820
• Main Authors: Wang, Leyi, Lanka, Saraswathi, Cassout, Debbie, Mateus‐Pinilla, Nohra E., Li, Ganwu, Wilson, William C., Yoo, Dongwan, Shelton, Paul, Fredrickson, Richard L.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Germany Hindawi Limited 01.09.2019
• Subjects: Animals; Deer - virology; Disease Outbreaks - veterinary; epizootic haemorrhagic disease virus; Etiology; Fitness; Gene sequencing; Genomes; Hemorrhagic disease; Hemorrhagic Disease Virus, Epizootic - genetics; Hemorrhagic Disease Virus, Epizootic - immunology; Hemorrhagic Disease Virus, Epizootic - isolation & purification; Icosahedral phase; Mutation; Outbreaks; Phylogeny; Reassortant Viruses - genetics; Reassortant Viruses - immunology; Reassortant Viruses - isolation & purification; reassortment; Reoviridae Infections - epidemiology; Reoviridae Infections - veterinary; Reoviridae Infections - virology; Reproductive fitness; RNA viruses; Serogroup; serotype; Serotypes; United States - epidemiology; Viruses; United States; reassortment; epizootic haemorrhagic disease virus; serotype
• ISSN: 1865-1674; 1865-1682
• DOI: 10.1111/tbed.13257

First described in 1955 in New Jersey, epizootic haemorrhagic disease (EHD) causes a severe clinical disease in wild and domestic ruminants worldwide. Epizootic haemorrhagic disease outbreaks occur in deer populations each year from summer to late autumn. The etiological agent is EHD virus (EHDV) which is a double‐stranded segmented icosahedral RNA virus. EHD virus utilizes point mutations and reassortment strategies to maintain viral fitness during infection. In 2018, EHDV serotype 2 was predominantly detected in deer in Illinois. Whole genome sequencing was conducted for two 2018 EHDV2 isolates (IL41747 and IL42218) and the sequence analyses indicated that IL42218 was a reassortant between different serotypes whereas IL41747 was a genetically stable strain. Our data suggest that multiple strains contribute to outbreaks each year.