Evolution of pigeon Newcastle disease virus strains

Twenty-seven Newcastle disease virus isolates obtained during the years 1998 and 1999 from racing pigeons were shown to be antigenically indistinguishable from the pigeon paramyxovirus type 1 (PPMV-1) viruses isolated in the years 1983 and 1984. Partial sequencing of 240 base pairs of the F gene demonstrated at least 94.7% identity at the nucleotide level between isolates from 1983 and 1984, and more recent viruses isolated in 1998 and 1999. Most of the nucleotide changes observed were silent mutations as only six amino acid changes were observed. Three amino acid substitutions were observed in the F2/F1 cleavage site. The sequence of the F2/F1 cleavage site of all isolates was typical for pathogenic paramyxovirus 1 viruses. Amino acids at the F2/F1 cleavage site changed from (112)GRQKRF(117) to (112)RRQKRF(117), (112)RRKKRF(117) or (112)RRRKRF(117). The motif (112)RRQKRF(117) was present in the majority of the isolates but the intracerebral pathogenicity indexes of PPMV-1 isolates having this motif was highly variable but largely lower (mean, 0.69) than that reported for PPMV-1 viruses isolated in the years 1983 and 1984 (mean, 1.44).