Emergence of a new lumpy skin disease virus variant in Kurgan Oblast, Russia, in 2018

AbstractIn this paper, we report the resurgence of lumpy skin disease (LSD) in Kurgan Oblast, Russia, in 2018. The majority of the outbreaks were silent with no mortality and congregated within an area with a radius of about 30  km located 1–50 km away from the national border with Kazakhstan. Following primary molecular diagnosis, LSD virus (LSDV) isolates were analyzed using a panel of PCR assays targeting different genetic loci, namely,LSD008 (vaccine),LSDV126 (field), andGPCR (vaccine and field), for differentiation and genotype assignment. All isolates were positive for the vaccine genotype ofGPCR and negative for the other field targets tested. A PCR assay with melt curve analysis utilizingLSD008, developed in this work, indicated that the strains melted with a profile similar to those of field strains. Surprisingly, sequence analysis of theRPO30 andGPCR genes aligned the Kurgan/2018 isolate with KSGP O-240 at theGPCR locus, but with Saratov/2017 at the RPO30 locus. The latter cluster forms an association with a sub-cluster of the field strains comprising the South African KSGP O-240 strain and NI-2490 strain. Due to these incongruent phylogenetic patterns, the sequences of three additional loci ORF19 (Kelch-like protein), ORF52 (putative transcriptional elongation factor), and ORF87 (mutT motif protein) were investigated. Phylogenetic analysis of these additional loci placed the strain Kurgan/2018 in either vaccine or field groups, strongly suggesting a novel recom...
Source: Archives of Virology - Category: Virology Source Type: research