Phylogenetic analysis of small ruminant lentiviruses detected in Slovenia

Small ruminant lentiviruses (SRLV), which belong to the Retroviridae family, infect goats and sheep worldwide. The aim of this study was to characterize the SRLV strains circulating in Slovenia, by phylogenetic analysis of two genomic regions, 1.8 kb gag-pol fragment and 1.2 kb pol fragment. The results of our study revealed that Slovenian SRLV strains are highly heterogeneous, with ovine strains belonging to genotype A and caprine strains to genotypes A and B. The closest relatives of sheep virus sequences from two flocks that clustered together (SLO 35, 36) were found to be in subtype A5. A cluster composed of four sheep virus sequences (SLO 31) was clearly divergent from all other subtypes in group A and could not be assigned to any of them. The virus sequences from one goat flock belonged solely to subtype B1, whereas virus sequences from more than one genotype were found to circulate within the other two goat flocks, belonging to subtype B1 (SLO 1 and SLO 37) and to genotype A (SLO 2 and 78–88 g). Two goat virus sequences (SLO 2) were found to belong to genotype A and could not be assigned to existing subtypes. One goat virus sequence (37–88 g) from flock 37 was clearly different from other sequences of this flock and was more closely related to genotype A sequences. We propose two new subtypes within genotype A, subtype A14 (SLO 2) and A15 (SLO 31).