Characteristics of the 5' untranslated region of wisent (Bison bonasus) and reindeer (Rangifer tarandus) Pestivirus isolates.

The 5'-untranslated region (5'-UTR) of the pestivirus strains isolated from wisent and reindeer suffering from severe diarrhoea in the Duisburg zoo in Germany were amplified by reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction and sequenced for comparison with those of other pestiviruses from cattle, sheep, goats and swine. Phylogenetic trees constructed from the primary nucleotide sequences of these strains demonstrated that the 5'-UTR of both the wisent and reindeer isolates were identical and suggested that the isolates were allocated to a new cluster of Border disease virus (BDV). The BDV strains were further divided into at least three genotypes or subspecies by phylogenetic analysis and a newly proposed method based on palindromic nucleotide substitutions was used at the variable regions in the 5'-UTR.