DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONS
Being the largest producer of milk in the world, the spread of LSD across the cattle population in India thus has devastating effects on the agrarian economy as well as the livelihoods of dairy farmers (FAO, UN). Although other capripoxvirus infections including sheep pox and goat pox are endemic in India, LSDV infections were considered to be constrained to the Sub-Saharan African region till 1981 (Das et al., 2021). As the virus continues to spread and evolve, genomic characterization of LSDV is thus useful for understanding the epidemiology and evolution of the virus.
In this study, we have reported the whole-genome sequences of 6 viral isolates of LSDV that were collected from the state of Rajasthan during an ongoing outbreak of infections in India. Analysis of the 6 viral isolates shows that the genomes from the 2022 outbreak of the disease form contain a large number of genetic variants as compared to previous genomes available in the public domain. The presence of an additional variant (LSDVgp037:D286V) in the virus isolated from skin scab as compared to nasal swab of the one host animal is suggestive of potential intra-host evolution of LSDV.
The genome sequences also form a distinct cluster on the phylogenetic tree of all publicly available LDSV genome sequences and bear limited similarity to other global genomes. Due to the limited number of genome sequences available for LSDV, the source of the outbreak could not be traced, further suggesting that additional genomes for the virus could help uncover potential outbreaks and connect existing outbreaks that are apparently unrelated.
Put together, the study iterates that genomic surveillance for characterising circulating strains of important transboundary infectious agents during ongoing outbreaks, such as LSD, is essential for early detection of the disease as well as for formulating interventions for disease control.