Objective: To investigate the genetic characterizations and genotypes of measles viruses that was prevalent in Ningbo city.
Methods: Measles viruses were isolated from throat swab specimens of suspected measles cases from 2004 to 2008 and 456 bp fragments of C terminus of nucleprotein (N) gene were amplified by RT-PCR. Sequence analysis was conducted of all 22 virus strains while compared with other measles virus strain which published in GenBank.
Results: All of the 22 measles isolates belonged to genotype H1. The homogeneities of 456 bp fragments of C terminus of nucleprotein (N) gene were as high as 97.1%-98.5%,98.2%-99.6% and 98.5%-98.9% respectively. The nucleotide (amino acids) variability was 8.0%-9.5% (9.8%-14.5%) compared to S191.
Conclusion: Genotype H1 measles virus circulated in Ningbo, China from 2004 to 2008. H1a was the predominant epidemic strain, H1b strain was existed as well.