Genetic characterization of bovine respiratory syncytial viruses in Japan between 2017 and 2019.

Bovine respiratory syncytial virus (BRSV) strains that were detected in Kagoshima prefecture and isolated in Hokkaido between 2017 and 2019, together with a BRSV vaccine strain, were subjected to full-genome sequencing. The BRSV strains identified in Japan were found to be genetically close to each other but distant from the vaccine strains. The deduced amino acids at positions 206 and 208 of the glycoprotein (G protein), which form one of the major epitopes of the recent Japanese BRSV strains, were different from those of the vaccine strains. Therefore, the recent Japanese BRSV strains might be antigenically different from the BRSV vaccine strains.