INTRODUCTION
Lumpy Skin Disease (LSD) is a virus disease of cattle, with significant
morbidity and mortality. The disease is characterised by nodular skin
lesions evident as lumps along with lymphadenopathy, with severe cases
resulting in the death of the affected animal
(Shumilova et al., 2022).
The morbidity rate in LSD varies widely from 50–100%
(Tuppurainen and Oura,
2012). While in general, the mortality rate is usually low (less than
5%) much higher mortality rates have been reported
(Molla et al., 2017). The
disease was largely confined to Africa until 1981 with significant
outbreaks in Asia and Eurasia in recent years. The disease is therefore
categorised as a notifiable emerging transboundary disease by the World
Organisation for Animal Health (OIE)
(Sameea Yousefi et al.,
2017). Recent years have seen a significant spread of the disease
across the Middle East, Europe and Asia
(Kumar et al., 2021). More
recently in 2019, it has been reported in the Asia and Pacific region
including India, China, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Bhutan and a large outbreak in
Bangladesh (Azeem et al.,
2022).
LSD is caused by the Lumpy Skin Disease Virus (LSDV), a poxvirus of the
genus capripoxvirus. The genome sequence of the Neethling strain of the
virus suggested that similar to other poxviruses, it has a
~151 kbp size genome encoding 156 open reading frames
(Tulman et al., 2001). The
virus has a limited host range and largely affects cattle
(Shen et al., 2011). Large
variability in the morbidity of the disease has been reported, with
morbidity rates across different studies ranging from 3%-85%
(Babiuk et al., 2008;
Şevik and Doğan, 2017). The mortality rate for previous outbreaks of
the disease has been observed to be low (1%-3%), although in some
regions high mortality rates (over 40%) have also been reported
(Davies, 1991;
Irons et al., 2005; Babiuk et al., 2008). Mortality rates of the
disease from more recent outbreaks in Iraq and Egypt were also reported
to be low (<1%)
(Al-Salihi and Hassan,
2015; Tasioudi et al., 2016).
In mid-2022, the states of Gujarat and Rajasthan in India saw a large
outbreak of LSD which spread across over seven states in the country and
reported mortality of over 80,000 cattle over a very short span of three
months. During the 2019 outbreak of the disease in India, morbidity
rates were reported to be as low as 7.1%, and no mortality was reported
(Sudhakar et al., 2020).
As India is home to over 190 million cattle, one of the largest in the
world (Department of Animal Husbandry & Dairying, 2019), controlling
LSDV infections is therefore of significant importance to prevent the
socio-economic impacts of the disease in the country. Here, we report
complete genome sequences of LSDV from the current outbreak of the
disease, isolated from the affected cattle in India.