Classical swine fever virus isolates from Cuba form a new subgenotype 1.4

Identification and classification of classical swine fever virus (CSFV) on the basis of nucleotide sequencing and phylogenetic analysis have become an important tool to study the epidemiology and to control CSF disease. According to phylogenetic analyses of short sequences from the 5'nontranslated region (150nt) and the E2 (190nt), most CSFV isolates from South and Central America have been assorted to the subgenotypes 1.1 and 1.3, while CSFV isolates from Cuba have been allocated to subgenotype 1.2. Here we demonstrate that determination and comparison of full-length E2 sequences as well as of the sequences encoding for N^pro, C, E^rns, E1 and E2 (3361nt) do not support segregation of Cuban CSFV isolates to subgenotype 1.2. In fact, our analysis revealed that the Cuban isolates are more divergent from other so far known CSFV subgenotype 1 isolates and form a novel separate subgenotype that is proposed to be designated subgenotype 1.4.