Newcastle disease outbreaks in Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan during 1998, 2000, 2001, 2003, 2004, and 2005 were caused by viruses of the genotypes VIIb and VIId.

Newcastle disease virus (NDV) infects domesticated and wild birds throughout the world, and infections with virulent NDV strains continue to cause disease outbreaks in poultry and wild birds. To assess the evolutionary characteristics of 28 NDV strains isolated from chickens in Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan during 1998, 2000, 2001, 2003, 2004, and 2005, we investigated the phylogenetic relationships among these viruses and viruses described previously. For genotyping, fusion (F) gene phylogenetic analysis (nucleotide number 47-421) was performed using sequences of Kazakhstanian and Kyrgyzstanian isolates as compared to sequences of selected NDV strains from GenBank.