Abstract Bluetongue (BT) is a disease of domestic and wild ruminant caused by bluetongue virus (BTV) of genus Orbivirus and family Reoviridae. BTV is non-enveloped icosahedral virus having 10 segmented dsRNA genome. The VP5 protein encoded by segment 6 along with VP2 protein gives serotype specificity to the virus. The BTV serotype 2 (isolate M11) was isolated from an outbreak in sheep from Andhra Pradesh state. The virus sample was grown in BHK21 cell culture. The RNA-PAGE and NS1 gene based RT-PCR confirmed the sample as BTV. The viral cDNA was allowed for segment 6 (vp5 gene) specific RT- CR using primers for all the serotypes. The BTV2 specific vp5 gene PCR amplicon was cloned and sequenced. Nucleotide sequence analysis revealed that Indian BTV2 serotype showed more than 99/97% nucleotide/amino acid sequence identity with western origin viruses from India, USA and South Africa. The study further indicated that western BTV2 in India may be originated from vaccine strains of BTV2 from South Africa.