Isolation and molecular characterization of lumpy skin disease virus from Tamil Nadu, India during the outbreaks from 2020 to 2022

Lumpy skin disease (LSD) caused by LSD virus is a WOAH notifiable, high-impact, transboundary poxviral disease of bovines. The first official report of LSDV in India is from Odisha state during August 2019. Since then, cases have been reported from many states including Tamil Nadu, a Southern state of India. The present study deals with isolation and molecular characterization of LSDV from Tamil Nadu during the period August 2020 to July 2022. LSDV was isolated in embryonated chicken eggs (ECE) and BHK 21 cells and was characterized based on P32, RPO30, and GPCR genes. The phylogenetic analysis revealed that Tamil Nadu isolates from India are closely related to other Indian strains, Kenyan strains and strains from neighboring countries such as Bangladesh, Nepal, and Myanmar confirming the common exotic source for the transboundary spread across borders. The presence of unique signature of amino acid (aa) at specific positions (A11, T12, T34, S99, and P199) in the GPCR sequence confirmed the identity of LSDV. A twelve nucleotide (nt94–105) insertion and corresponding aa (TILS) at 30–33 position was found in GPCR sequence and characteristic amino acid proline at 98 position (P98) in the RPO30 gene sequence of our isolates was similar to strains from Bangladesh, Nepal, and Myanmar. Further, dissimilarity of our isolates from Neethling like vaccine strains confirms the circulation of virulent filed strains responsible for the outbreaks.