Widespread Reassortment Contributes to Antigenic Shift in Bluetongue Viruses from South Africa

Bluetongue (BT), a viral disease of ruminants, is endemic throughout South Africa, where outbreaks of different serotypes occur. The predominant serotypes can differ annually due to herd immunity provided by annual vaccinations using a live attenuated vaccine (LAV). This has led to both wild-type and vaccine strains co-circulating in the field, potentially leading to novel viral strains due to reassortment and recombination. Little is known about the molecular evolution of the virus in the field in South Africa. The purpose of this study was to investigate the genetic diversity of field strains of BTV in South Africa and to provide an initial assessment of the evolutionary processes shaping BTV genetic diversity in the field. Complete genomes of 35 field viruses belonging to 11 serotypes, collected from different regions of the country between 2011 and 2017, were sequenced. The sequences were phylogenetically analysed in relation to all the BTV sequences available from GenBank, including the LAVs and reference strains, resulting in the analyses and reassortment detection of 305 BTVs. Phylogenomic analysis indicated a geographical selection of the genome segments, irrespective of the serotype. Based on the initial assessment of the current genomic clades that circulate in South Africa, the selection for specific clades is prevalent in directing genome segment reassortment, which seems to exclude the vaccine strains and in multiple cases involves Segment-2 resulting in antigenic shift.