Sequence of the gene coding for the p26 protein from a Cuban strain of Equine Infectious Anemia Virus

equine infectious anemia virus (eiav) is the causal agent of equine infectious anemia. plasma virus rna levels and the fraction of infected cells are both very low during the chronic stage of eiav infections, turning the amplification of viral genes into a technically demanding task. in this work, dna was extracted from the spleen of a chronically infected animal previously immunosuppressed with prednisolone, amplifying by nested pcr and sequencing the segment of the gag gene that codes for the p26 protein. phylogenetic analysis placed the cuban strain closest to three canadian strains. the translated protein sequence exhibits 7 differences with the most related canadian strain (can7) and 13 with the wyoming strain. this is the first report of a partial nucleotide sequence from eiav in cuba and the caribbean.