[West Nile virus genotyping among wild birds belonging to ground and tree-brush bird populations on the territories of the Baraba forest-steppe and Kulunda steppe (2003-2004)].

The paper gives the results of the 2003-2004 examinations of 104 wild birds belonging to land tree-brush complexes from the Baraba forest-steppe and Kulunda steppe for the detection and genotyping West Nile virus (WNV). ELISA and RT-PCR were used to show that in the forest-steppe and steppe zones of the south of Western Siberia, WNV circulates among both migrating and settled birds. An analysis of the nucleotide sequence of a protein E gene fragment showed the circulation of WNV genotype Ia in the study birds. A number of revealed amino acid substitutions in surface glycoprotein E are unique for the 2003-2004 Western-Siberian WNV variants and absent in the 2002 Western-Siberian variants, which suggests that there are regional features of the evolution of WNV genotype Ia.