Genetic analysis of the partial M RNA segment of Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever viruses in Turkey [Türkiye'deki ki{dotless}rm kongo kanamali{dotless} ateşi virüslerinin ki{dotless}smi M-segmentlerinin genetik analizi]

Crimean-congo hemorrhagic fever (cchf) is a fatal tick-borne zoonosis extensively common in africa,asia,eastern europe and the balkan peninsula. cchf has been reported in turkey with high frequency since 2002. genetic diversity of cchf virus (cchfv) isolates circulating in turkey were studied by two recent studies from 2006 to the end of 2010. since cchfv disease has been an important public health concern in turkey,it is necessary to continue genetic analysis of cchfv viruses for the assessment of future patterns of disease. the aim of the present study was to genetic analysis of cchfv isolates derived from infected patients over a two-year period (2011 and 2012) in several provinces of turkey. serum samples (n=10) were selected from cchfv rna positive patients and subjected to sequence analysis of the gene region encoding partial m segment. the nucleotide sequence alignments of the 10 partial m segments of cchfv isolates showed that the nucleic acid relatedness of cchfv isolates ranged from 94.4% to 100%. phylogenetic analysis of m segment sequences revealed that cchfv isolates circulating in turkey belonged to the european lineage i and were closely related to the viruses previously found in turkey and in the eastern european-russian and balkan peninsula. the results of the present study indicated the genetic stability and the lack of the genetic diversity of cchfv isolates circulating in turkey.