Objective

To analyze the nucleotide and amino acid sequences of the nucleocapsid protein gene of Canine Distemper virus (CDV) isolated in Thailand.

Materials & Methods

The C-terminal part of nucleocapsid protein gene from 13 canine distemper virus (CDV) isolates in Thailand were analyzed for nucleotide and amino acid sequences. All of the canine distemper virus infected dog histories were recorded for age, clinical findings, pathological lesions, inclusion bodies appearances, evidences of antigen by immunohistochemistry and evidences of CDV-specific RNA by reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction.

Results

The nucleotide sequences were divided into 2 groups. One exhibited greater homology closely related to vaccine strain (Onderstepoort strain), of total 2 samples, at 99.10% and 97.61% respectively. Another one exhibited greater homology closely related to the other virulent strain reported in GeneBank database (Yanaka, Ueno, Adashi, Hamamatsu and 2544/Han95) and the virulent reference strain (A75/17), of total 11 samples, at 94.63-99.10% at the same position. The deduced amino acid sequences were divided into 2 groups that correlated to the nucleotide sequences. However, there were no association among these CDV groups to their vaccination histories, sex, ages, clinical findings and tissue presentation evidences of viral antigen.

Conclusion

CDV isolates in Thailand exhibits the nucleotide and amino acid sequence homology closely to those reported from other part of the world.