Abstract

In 2020/2021, several European brown hare syndrome virus (EBHSV) outbreaks were recorded in European hares (Lepus europaeus) from Catalonia, Spain. Recombination analysis combined with phylogenetic reconstruction and estimation of genetic distances of the complete coding sequences revealed that 5 strains were recombinants. The recombination breakpoint is located within the non-structural protein 2C-like RNA helicase (nucleotide position ~ 1889). For the genomic fragment upstream of the breakpoint, a non-pathogenic EBHSV-related strain (hare calicivirus, HaCV; GII.2) was the most closely related sequence; for the rest of the genome, the most similar strains were the European brown hare syndrome virus (EBHSV) strains recovered from the same 2020/2021 outbreaks, suggesting a recent origin. While the functional impact of the atypical recombination breakpoint remains undetermined, the novel recombinant strain was detected in different European brown hare populations from Catalonia, located 20–100 km apart, and seems to have caused a fatal disease both in juvenile and adult animals, confirming its viability and ability to spread and establish infection. This is the first report of a recombination event involving HaCV and EBHSV and, despite the recombination with a non-pathogenic strain, it appears to be associated with mortality in European brown hares, which warrants close monitoring.

Details

Title
A new HaCV-EBHSV recombinant lagovirus circulating in European brown hares (Lepus europaeus) from Catalonia, Spain
Author
Almeida, Tereza 1 ; Lopes, Ana M. 2 ; Estruch, Josep 3 ; Rouco, Carlos 4 ; Cavadini, Patrizia 5 ; Neimanis, Aleksija 6 ; Gavier-Widén, Dolores 7 ; Le Gall-Reculé, Ghislaine 8 ; Velarde, Roser 3 ; Abrantes, Joana 9 

 Campus de Vairão, Universidade do Porto, CIBIO, Centro de Investigação em Biodiversidade e Recursos Genéticos, InBIO Laboratório Associado, Vairão, Portugal (GRID:grid.5808.5) (ISNI:0000 0001 1503 7226); CIBIO, BIOPOLIS Program in Genomics, Biodiversity and Land Planning, Vairão, Portugal (GRID:grid.5808.5) (ISNI:0000 0001 1503 7226) 
 Campus de Vairão, Universidade do Porto, CIBIO, Centro de Investigação em Biodiversidade e Recursos Genéticos, InBIO Laboratório Associado, Vairão, Portugal (GRID:grid.5808.5) (ISNI:0000 0001 1503 7226); CIBIO, BIOPOLIS Program in Genomics, Biodiversity and Land Planning, Vairão, Portugal (GRID:grid.5808.5) (ISNI:0000 0001 1503 7226); University of Porto, UMIB-Unit for Multidisciplinary Research in Biomedicine, ICBAS-School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, Porto, Portugal (GRID:grid.5808.5) (ISNI:0000 0001 1503 7226); Laboratory for Integrative and Translational Research in Population Health, ITR, Porto, Portugal (GRID:grid.5808.5) (ISNI:0000 0001 1503 7226) 
 Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB), Wildlife Ecology & Health Group (WE&H) and Servei d’Ecopatologia de Fauna Salvatge (SEFaS), Departament de Medicina i Cirurgia Animals, Barcelona, Spain (GRID:grid.7080.f) (ISNI:0000 0001 2296 0625) 
 Universidad de Sevilla, Departamento de Biología Vegetal y Ecología, Sevilla, Spain (GRID:grid.9224.d) (ISNI:0000 0001 2168 1229) 
 Istituto Zooprofilattico Sperimentale della Lombardia e dell’Emilia Romagna, WOAH Reference Laboratory for Rabbit Haemorrhagic Disease, Brescia, Italy (GRID:grid.419583.2) (ISNI:0000 0004 1757 1598) 
 National Veterinary Institute, Department of Pathology and Wildlife Diseases, Uppsala, Sweden (GRID:grid.419788.b) (ISNI:0000 0001 2166 9211) 
 Swedish Veterinary Agency (SVA), Uppsala, Sweden (GRID:grid.419788.b) (ISNI:0000 0001 2166 9211); Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU), Department of Biomedical Sciences and Veterinary Public Health, Uppsala, Sweden (GRID:grid.6341.0) (ISNI:0000 0000 8578 2742) 
 French Agency for Food, Environmental and Occupational Health & Safety (Anses), Avian and Rabbit Virology, Immunology and Parasitology Unit, Ploufragan-Plouzané-Niort Laboratory, Ploufragan, France (GRID:grid.15540.35) (ISNI:0000 0001 0584 7022) 
 Campus de Vairão, Universidade do Porto, CIBIO, Centro de Investigação em Biodiversidade e Recursos Genéticos, InBIO Laboratório Associado, Vairão, Portugal (GRID:grid.5808.5) (ISNI:0000 0001 1503 7226); CIBIO, BIOPOLIS Program in Genomics, Biodiversity and Land Planning, Vairão, Portugal (GRID:grid.5808.5) (ISNI:0000 0001 1503 7226); Universidade do Porto, Departamento de Biologia, Faculdade de Ciências, Porto, Portugal (GRID:grid.5808.5) (ISNI:0000 0001 1503 7226) 
Pages
2872
Publication year
2024
Publication date
2024
Publisher
Nature Publishing Group
e-ISSN
20452322
Source type
Scholarly Journal
Language of publication
English
ProQuest document ID
2921813868
Copyright
© The Author(s) 2024. This work is published under http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ (the “License”). Notwithstanding the ProQuest Terms and Conditions, you may use this content in accordance with the terms of the License.