Sequence comparison between the haemagglutinin-neuraminidase genes of simian, canine and human isolates of simian virus 5.

The nucleotide sequence of the haemagglutinin-neuraminidase (HN) gene was determined for a simian (W3), human (LN) and two canine (CPI+/CPI-) isolates of simian virus 5 (SV5). A comparison of the predicted amino acid sequences revealed that the human and canine isolates varied from the simian isolate by 1.7% and 2.4% respectively. This lack of significant variation between the HN proteins of the four SV5 isolates suggests that insufficient differences have occurred between isolates to confine them to a specific host.