OBJECTIVETo determine the partial sequence of virus strains causing an aseptic meningitis outbreak in northern part of Jiangsu province in 2003 and to compare them with the same serotype strains isolated in other countries to better understand its genetic characteristics and hereditary trend of development.

METHODSVirus RNA was amplified using two sets of specific enteroviral 3' half of VP1 primers 012/011 and 040/011. Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) products were purified and sequenced. BLAST program was then used to perform on nucleotide and amino acid pairwise-alignment with all available sequences in NCBI database. Phylogenetic trees were drawed to compare with other enteroviral sequences using PHYLIP software.

RESULTSUnder BLAST program, three sequences we submitted to GenBank were identically inferred as echovirus type 30, which had been identified by neutralization test in previous study. Phylogenetic analysis demonstrated that strains isolated from this outbreak were aggregated into a cluster, and the closest relationships with them were those isolated in 1999 and 2000. This phenomenon indicated that Echo30 from this outbreak was different from other strains in different epidemic area.

CONCLUSION3' half of VP1 sequence could be used to quickly identify the serotype of isolated enterovirus. Strains isolated from this outbreak had the similar hereditary developing trend comparing with Echo30 strains isolated from other countries.