Duck enteritis virus (DEV) is a herpesvirus that causes an acute, contagious and fatal disease. In the present article, the DEV UL4 gene was cloned and sequenced from a vaccine virus. A degenerate oligonucleotide primer for the consensus site of herpesvirus UL3 gene and a specific primer located in UL5 were used in the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) to amplify a DNA product 2 086 bp in size. DNA sequence analysis revealed that a 714 bp open reading frame (ORF) of DEV encoding a 237 amino acid polypeptide is homologous to the family of herpesvirus UL4 proteins and therefore has been characterized as a DEV UL4 gene. Alignment of the DEV UL4 protein sequence with those of other alphaherpesviruses showed that 10 amino acid residues are completely conserved. Phylogenetic tree analysis showed that the seventeen alphaherpesviruses viruses analyzed were classified into four large groups, and the duck enteritis virus branched separately, closely related to the Mardiviruses group comprising Gallid herpesvirus 2 (GaHV-2), Gallid herpesvirus 3 (GaHV-3) and Meleagrid herpesvirus 1 (MeHV-1). The present study showed that the evolutionary relationship of the UL4 protein could be used for classification of alphaherpesviruses.

Objective To investigate the changes of pathogens and antimicrobial susceptibility in patients with biliary tract infection during the past 30 years.Methods During the periods of 1981-1984,1988-1998 and 2003-2013,each 100 patients treated with common bile duct exploratoration were selected from every period.Biopsied bile specimens were performed with bacteria culture and antimicrobial susceptibility tests.This study reviewed the changes in bilary pathogens and antimicrobial susceptibility test.Results From 1981 to 1984,the most common pathogens were Escherichia coli (59.2％) and Klebsiella pneumonia (28.9％).Mixed infection of these pathogens accounted for 16.9％.From 1988 to 1998,the types of pathogens significandy increased.Escherichia coli (33.1％) and Klebsiella pneumonia (16.5％) accounted for less than 50％.Mixed infection with Escherichia coli and Pseudomonas aeruginosa was the most common type.From 2003 to 2013,gram-negative bacteria were still the main pathogens,accounting for 61.8％.Escherichia coli and Pseudomonas aeruginosa accounted for 20.1％ and 10.4％,respectively.Gram-positive bacteria increased sigrnificantly.Enterococcusfaecium (22.2％) ranked the first.Mixed infection increased (36％),of which more than 50％ was mixed pathogens of Escherichia coli and Enterococcusfaecium.The incidence of fungi infection also increased (5.6％).Conclusions There was a remarkable change of pathogen category in the biliary infections over the past years.With an increase of gram-positive bacteria and fungi infection in clinical practice,antimicrobial susceptability results could be considered in choosing appropriate drug to avoid bacterial resistance.