Comparisons of the complete genomes of two Chinese isolates of a recent foot-and-mouth disease type Asia 1 virus.

China reported the first outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) serotype Asia 1 in Chinese Hong Kong in March, 2005. Subsequently, this type of the virus was reported from mainland of China in April 2005. Up to September of 2006, it was detected in more than 15 areas of China. In this paper, the complete genomes of two Chinese isolates, Asia 1/HNK/CHA/05 and Asia 1/JS/CHA/05, of foot-and-mouth disease virus (FMDV) were sequenced and compared with some Chinese sequences and reference sequences from other countries. The identities between Asia 1/HNK/CHA/05 and Asia 1/JS/CHA/05 of 5'-UTR, L gene, P1 (VP1) gene, P2 gene, P3 gene, 3'-UTR are 84.8, 87.6, 86.4 (82.3%), 92.5, 92.8 and 95.3%, respectively. The data revealed that these two strains do not belong to the same genotype depending on the analysis of VP1 sequences, and neither of them have deleted bases in 5'UTR and 3A genes compared with the reference sequences. In addition, the secondary structures of their 5'UTR and 3'UTR are discussed.