Identification of Foot and Mouth Disease Virus Isolates Using Vp1 Gene Sequencing

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Date
2017
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Zimbabwe Journal of Science & Technology
Abstract
Foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) is a severely infectious and economically devastating viral disease worldwide, which affects domestic animals with cloven hooves (artiodactyls) and more than 70 species of wild animals. The virus is highly variable with 7 serotypes and numerous subtypes. VP1 is the main immunogenic viral protein of FMDV and using Reverse Transcription-Polymerase Chain Reaction (RT-PCR) and nucleotide sequencing, it can be used to characterize type, subtype and determine genetic distances among circulating FMD viruses. The aim of the study was to use VP1 gene sequencing to identify FMDV isolates obtained from the Central Veterinary Laboratory, Harare, Zimbabwe. A total of 35 probang samples were collected from the virology section at CVL. The samples consisted of stored probangs collected from FMDV infected cattle in 2014 and 2015. The VP1 gene was successfully amplified by RT-PCR in16 samples. Only 9 samples that had strong PCR bands were sequenced and used to identify FMD viruses using similarity based annotation approaches. Out of the 9 PCR products sequenced, 7 VP1 sequences were submitted to GenBank and assigned the following accession numbers: KT879751, KT879752, KT879753, KT879754, KT879755, KT879756 and KT879757. Similarity based annotation using BLAST analysis revealed that 5 of the isolates (KT879751, KT879752, KT879753, KT879754 and KT879755) belonged to the FMDV SAT 2 serotype. The remaining 2 isolates (KT879756 and KT879757) belonged to the FMDV SAT1 serotype. Phylogenetic analysis of these sequences using MEGA 7 showed that the viruses formed 3 clusters based on the VP1 gene sequences, 1 for SAT1 and 2 for SAT2, which implied that the SAT 2 isolates belong to 2 distinct topotypes. Our findings indicate that both the SAT2 and SAT1 serotypes are in circulation in Zimbabwe and that VP1 gene based sequencing is a useful tool for detection and identification of FMDV isolates.
Description
Journal Article
Keywords
Foot and mouth disease virus, Zimbabwe, VP1, phylogenetic, sequencing
Citation
Mbanga, J., Saidi, B., and Dyirakumunda, B., 2017. Identification of Foot and Mouth Disease Virus Isolates Using Vp1 Gene Sequencing. Zimbabwe Journal of Science & Technology, 12[2017]:15 – 23.