Abstract
Border disease virus (BDV) affects a wide range of ruminants worldwide, mainly domestic sheep and goat. Since 2001 several outbreaks of disease associated to BDV infection have been described in Pyrenean chamois (Rupicapra pyrenaica pyrenaica) in Spain, France and Andorra. In order to reconstruct the most probable places of origin and pathways of dispersion of BDV among Pyrenean chamois, a phylogenetic analysis of 95 BDV 5’untranslated sequences has been performed on chamois and domestic ungulates, including novel sequences and retrieved from public databases, using a Bayesian Markov Chain Monte Carlo method. Discrete and continuous space phylogeography have been applied on chamois sequences dataset, using centroid positions and latitude and longitude coordinates of the animals, respectively.The estimated mean evolutionary rate of BDV sequences was 2.9×10−3 subs/site/year (95% HPD: 1.5–4.6×10−3). All the Pyrenean chamois isolates clustered in a unique highly significant clade, that originated from BDV-4a ovine clade. The introduction from sheep (dated back to the early 90s) generated a founder effect on the chamois population and the most probable place of origin of Pyrenean chamois BDV was estimated at coordinates 42.42 N and 1.9 E. The pathways of virus dispersion showed two main routes: the first started on the early 90s of the past century with a westward direction and the second arise in Central Pyrenees. The virus spread westward for more than 125 km and southward for about 50km and the estimated epidemic diffusion rate was about 13.1 km/year (95% HPD 5.2–21.4 km/year). The strong spatial structure, with strains from a single locality segregating together in homogeneous groups, and the significant pathways of viral dispersion among the areas, allowed to reconstruct both events of infection in a single area and of migrations, occurring between neighboring areas.
Highlights
Pestiviruses are characterized by a high degree of genetic variability and the genus comprises four approved species, namely Border disease virus (BDV), Bovine viral diarrhoea virus type 1 (BVDV-1) and type 2 (BVDV-2), and Classical swine fever virus (CSFV) [1], traditionally classified according to the host species
Identification and genetic characterization of BDV strains from Pyrenean chamois have been performed since the first outbreaks [27], the intensive monitoring of found dead or hunted chamois allowed to collect a large number of strains from different areas in the Pyrenees and to apply advanced phylogenetic analysis
Previous investigations performed phylogenetic analysis using the neighbor-joining (NJ) method and classified Pyrenean chamois strains within BDV-4 genotype [27,28]
Summary
Pestiviruses are characterized by a high degree of genetic variability and the genus comprises four approved species, namely Border disease virus (BDV), Bovine viral diarrhoea virus type 1 (BVDV-1) and type 2 (BVDV-2), and Classical swine fever virus (CSFV) [1], traditionally classified according to the host species. Identification and genetic characterization of pestivirus strains in different animal species revealed an extensive interspecies transmission among both domestic [2,3,4] and wild ungulates [5,6], showing a low host specificity and a wide host range. Besides the interspecies transmission of known genetic variants, several newly emerged pestivirus were detected in livestock [7,8] and in wild ruminant populations [9]. Genetic changes of viruses can lead to alterations of virulence, as recently observed with the Bungowannah pestivirus with high mortality in pigs [10,11] and the emergence of ovine pestiviruses closely related to CSFV in Tunisia and Spain [7,8]. Isolates from Tunisia [8], Turkey [13] and Switzerland [14] possibly form further groups
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