Bluetongue virus Genome sequencing. Bluetongue virus

Bluetongue (BT) is a non-contagious, infectious, arthropod transmitted viral disease of domestic and wild ruminants that is caused by the bluetongue virus (BTV), the prototype member of the Orbivirus genus in the family Reoviridae. In sheep the virus causes a disease syndrome that is characterized by vascular thrombosis, necrosis, haemorrhage and oedema. Cattle are susceptible to infection and are thought to represent an important maintenance host of the virus, however cattle rarely demonstrate clinical signs in the field. Bluetongue was first described in South Africa and it is currently recognized that 22 of the 27 known serotypes of the virus occur in the country. In order to protect sheep against multiple circulating serotypes, three pentavalent attenuated vaccines have been developed by Onderstepoort Biological Products. As part of a project to investigate vaccine/wildtype reassortment in co-infected/vaccinated cattle, new wild type and selected modified live attenuated (MLV) vaccine strains were sequenced using next generation sequencing. This bioproject provides full genome sequence data for plaque purified vaccine strains in bottle B of the OBP vaccine (MLV-3, MLV-8, MLV-9, MLV-10 and MLV-11) as well as a wild type BTV-4 strain that was isolated from a Dohne Merino ewe showing clinical disease in Rustenburg (North West Province; South Africa) in 2011. In addition, the full genome sequences of several reassortant strains that were isolated from blood from experimentally co-infected/vaccinated cattle during the period of viraemia are presented.