Whole genome molecular characterization of Infectious Pancreatic Necrosis Viruses isolated in Turkey

Infectious pancreatic necrosis virus (IPNV; Birnaviridae,Aquabirnavirus)causes infectious pancreatic necrosis (IPN) in fish. IPN disease was first found in 2002 in Turkey. In this study, 10 IPNV isolates were isolated between 2005 and 2013 and propagated in RTG-2 cell cultures. RNAs obtained from cell lysates were used as template and VP1, VP2, VP3, VP4 and VP5 genes of the virus were amplified in full length. Sequence analyses of the genes were made. The obtained sequences were compared with international reference strains from GenBank and phylogenetic analyses and genogrouping of the viruses were conducted. Turkish isolates were found to show a genetic similarity of between 93.5% and 99.8% in terms of molecules. When segment A sequences were compared with each other, a similarity between 97.8% and 99.8% was found; when they were compared with international reference strains, they were found to have the highest similarity (99.3%) with France AJ622822 isolate and the lowest (65.7%) similarity with Canada NC001915 isolate. When segment B sequences of the isolates were compared with each other, a similarity between 93.5% and 99.5% was found; when they were compared with international reference strains, they were found to have the highest similarity (98.9%) with Canada M58757 isolate and the lowest (52.7%) similarity with Finland KY548519 strain. As a result of phylogenetic analyses conducted, Turkish isolates were found to be closely related with France, Spain and Iran strains in serotype A2 and genogroup 5 they were placed in.