Appearance of mosaic enterovirus 71 in the 2008 outbreak of China

Enterovirus 71 (EV71) is a pathogen of hand-foot-and-mouth disease (HFMD). In the last year and this spring, HFMD caused by EV71 repeatedly broke out and has resulted in at least 50 children's death in China. It is important to know the mechanism effecting genetic diversity of the virus circulating in China in order to prevent future outbreaks in the country. Homologous recombination has been proved to play a role in evolution of the virus. In this study, we have performed a phylogenetic analysis of full-length EV71 isolated in the last year in China to detect if recombination exerts its influence on the EV71 outbreak. Among EV71 isolates from China, 5 isolates were identified as mosaic. This finding suggests that homologous recombination has played some roles in generating genetic diversity in the outbreak of EV71 in China. (C) 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.