Detection of kobuvirus RNA in Japanese domestic dogs

SOMA, Takehisa; MATSUBAYASHI, Makoto; SASAI, Kazumi

The partial 3D nucleotide sequences (638-bp) of the 12 present strains were compared with the reference strains in the GenBank database. Among the present strains, the homologies were 95.7-98.9%. The homologies of the present strains with known CaKoVs from dogs and canidae animals, and the Kobuvirus detected from a sewage sample (AB861494) were 94.5-97.4% and 96.1-97.7%, respectively. The present strains were clustered into the same clade with the known CaKoVs and the sewage strain in the phylogenetic tree (Fig. 1) . The homologies of the present strains with the isolates from humans, cats and mice were relatively high (77.4-83.3%), showing that the present strains were classified into Aichivirus A species. In contrast, those with the isolates from other mammals were low (60.8-66.5%), which were clustered in different clades. Furthermore, the present strains and the sewage virus were clustered into the same clade (Asia), if the CaKoV clade was subdivided.