Genome Characterization and Spaciotemporal Dispersal Analysis of Bagaza Virus Detected in Portugal, 2021

Marta Falcão; Margarida Barros; Margarida D Duarte; Fábio Abade Dos Santos; Teresa Fagulha; Margarida Henriques; Fernanda Ramos; Ana Duarte; Tiago Luís; Ricardo Parreira; Sílvia C Barros

doi:10.3390/pathogens12020150

Genome Characterization and Spaciotemporal Dispersal Analysis of Bagaza Virus Detected in Portugal, 2021

Pathogens. 2023 Jan 17;12(2):150. doi: 10.3390/pathogens12020150.

Authors

Marta Falcão¹, Margarida Barros², Margarida D Duarte^{3

4}, Fábio Abade Dos Santos^{3

4}, Teresa Fagulha³, Margarida Henriques³, Fernanda Ramos³, Ana Duarte^{3

4}, Tiago Luís³, Ricardo Parreira^{1

5}, Sílvia C Barros³

Affiliations

¹ Institute of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (IHMT), NOVA University of Lisbon, Rua da Junqueira 100, 1349-008 Lisbon, Portugal.
² Faculdade de Ciências Médicas, NMS|FCM, NOVA Medical School, Universidade Nova de Lisboa, Campo dos Mártires da Pátria 130, 1169-056 Lisbon, Portugal.
³ National Institute of Agrarian and Veterinarian Research (INIAV, I.P.), Av. da República, Quinta do Marquês, 2780-157 Oeiras, Portugal.
⁴ Centre for Interdisciplinary Research in Animal Health (CIISA), Faculdade de Medicina Veterinária, Universidade de Lisboa, Avenida da Universidade Técnica, 1300-477 Lisbon, Portugal.
⁵ Global Health and Tropical Medicine (GHTM), Rua da Junqueira 100, 1349-008 Lisbon, Portugal.

Abstract

In September 2021, Bagaza virus (BAGV), a member of the Ntaya group from the Flavivirus genus, was detected for the first time in Portugal, in the heart and the brain of a red-legged partridge found dead in a hunting ground in Serpa (Alentejo region; southern Portugal). Here we report the genomic characterization of the full-length sequence of the BAGV detected (BAGV/PT/2021), including phylogenetic reconstructions and spaciotemporal analyses. Phylogenies inferred from nucleotide sequence alignments, complemented with the analysis of amino acid alignments, indicated that the BAGV strain from Portugal is closely related to BAGV strains previously detected in Spain, suggesting a common ancestor that seems to have arrived in the Iberia Peninsula in the late 1990s to early 2000s. In addition, our findings support previous observations that BAGV and Israel turkey meningoencephalitis virus (ITV) belong to the same viral species.

Keywords: Alectoris rufa; BAGV; Flavivirus; Israel turkey meningoencephalomyelitis virus (ITV); Ntaya group; genome; phylogenetic analysis; spaciotemporal analyses.

Grants and funding

This work received financial support from the Global Health and Tropical Medicine Center (which is funded through Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT) contract UID/Multi/04413/2013). This research was also funded by FCT, Project UIDB/00276/2020 and LA/P/0059/2020-AL4AnimalS, and by the Interdisciplinary Research Center on Animal Health (CIISA), Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, University of Lisbon (Portugal). Finally, this research was also partially funded by the Interdisciplinary Research Center on Animal Health (Project CIISA-INOV 4/2021), Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, University of Lisbon (CIISA, FMV-UL) (Portugal).