Molecular Epidemiology of Human Metapneumovirus from 2005 to 2011 in Fukui, Japan

To investigate the molecular epidemiology of human metapneumovirus (HMPV) infections in acute respiratory infections (ART), we performed genetic analysis of the F gene in HMPV from patients with ART in Fukui Prefecture from August 2005 to July 2011. HMPV was detected in 53 of 741 nasopharyngeal swabs (7.2%). Phylogenetic analysis helped us assign 31 strains to subgroup A2, 1 strain to subgroup B1, and 21 strains to subgroup B2. The prevalence of HMPV was peaked between January and June. A high degree of nucleotide identity was seen among subgroup A2 strains (95.6-100%) and subgroup B2 strains (97.5-100%). In addition, no positively selected sites (substitutions) were found in the F gene in these HMPV strains. The results suggest that the prevalent HMPV strains in Fukui were associated with various ART in Japan during the investigation period.