Genetic Typing of Bovine Viral Diarrhea Viruses (BVDV) Circulating in Korea

ABSTRACT

To characterize the genetic diversity of bovine viral diarrhea viruses (BVDV) circulating in Korea, 11 BVDV isolates were obtained from 467 field samples collected during 2005~2006 in Korea. All of the BVDV isolates were identified as non-cytopathic (non-cp) BVDV biotypes. The 5' noncoding region (NCR) genes of the isolates were sequenced and analyzed. In total, ten BVDV isolates were typed as BVDV-1 by comparing the genomic sequences to the 5' NCR. One isolate (05R169) showed 98.6% nucleotide sequence identity with the BVDV-2 reference strain and was therefore typed as BVDV-2. Our results indicate that BVDV-1 is the main genotype circulating in the cattle population of Korea.