Identification of coronaviruses in dogs that segregate separately from the canine coronavirus genotype

The genetic diversity of 16 canine coronavirus (MV) samples is described. Samples were obtained from pups infected naturally living in different areas. Sequence data were obtained from the M gene and pol 1a and pol 1b regions. The phylogenetic relationships among these sequences and sequences published previously were determined. The canine samples segregated in two separate clusters. Samples of the first cluster were intermingled with reference strains of CCoV genotype and therefore could be assigned to this genotype. The second cluster segregated separately from CCoV and feline coronavirus genotypes and therefore these samples may represent genetic outliers. The reliability of the classification results was confirmed by repeating the phylogenetic analysis with nucleotide and amino acid sequences from multiple genomic regions. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.