Phylogenetic Characterization of Crimean-Congo Hemorrhagic Fever Virus, Spain

Abstract

Two cases of Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever were reported in Spain during 2016. We obtained the virus from a patient sample and characterized its full genomic sequence. Phylogenetic analysis indicated that the virus corresponds to the African genotype III, which includes viruses previously found in West and South Africa.

Keywords: Africa; Bunyaviridae hyalomma; CCFHV; Crimean Congo hemorrhagic fever; Spain; complete genome; nairovirus; phylogeny; ticks; vector-borne infections; viruses; zoonoses.

Figure

Phylogenetic analysis of Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever virus from patient in Spain, 2016, compared with reference sequences. A) Small segment (1,450 bp); B) medium segment (4,497 bp); C) large segment (11,829 bp). Trees were generated with the neighbor-joining method with Kimura 2-parameter distances by using MEGA version 5.1 (http://www.megasoftware.net). Bootstrap confidence limits were calculated on the basis of 1,000 replicates; numbers on branches indicate bootstrap results. Triangles indicate newly sequenced strain from Spain described in this article; other sequences are named by GenBank accession number, strain, geographic origin, and sampling year. Genotypes at right are named according to Carrol et al. (4); brackets indicate equivalent group nomenclature according to Chamberlain et al. (1). Roman numerals indicate geographic locations: I, West Africa (Africa 1); II, Central Africa (Africa 2); III, South and West Africa (Africa 3); IV, Middle East/Asia, divided into 2 groups, Asia 1 and Asia 2 (1); V, Europe/Turkey (Europe 1); VI, Greece (Europe 2). Scale bars indicate nucleotide substitutions per site.