Detection and genetic analysis of poxviruses of goats from field outbreaks of Kerala, India Arun P.M., Rajasekhar R.*, Ravishankar Chintu, Palekkodan Hamza1, Sumod K., John Koshy, Nair Athira P.1, Maneesh K.M., Shashank S. Department of Veterinary Microbiology, College of Veterinary and Animal Sciences, Pookode-673 576, Kerala 1Department of Veterinary Pathology, College of Veterinary and Animal Sciences, Pookode-673 576, Kerala *E-mail address: rajasekhar@kvasu.ac.in
Online Published on 12 February, 2024. Abstract Three outbreaks of pox viral infections in goats were investigated in Kerala (India) from 2018 to 2022. Detection of the viral agents was carried out employing histopathology and molecular methods. The P32 gene for goat pox virus (GPV) and A32 gene for orf virus (ORFV) were targeted for polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and phylogenetic analysis. The phylogenetic analysis of the GPV isolate showed close relationship with other Indian isolates with 99.89 to 100% nucleotide similarity. It was more similar to Puducherry isolate (MK805069) with no difference in amino acids. The sequencing and phylogenetic analysis of ORFV showed higher similarity to the ORFV strain SJ1 (99.15%) reported from China and 98.71 to 99.03% similarity to other Indian isolates. The isolate showed an amino acid addition of arginine at position 250, which was not detected in any of the south Indian ORFV isolates. The present ORFV isolate in Kerala is divergent from other south Indian isolates on nucleotide and amino acid analysis. Asingle copy of RGD sequence observed in the isolate may contribute to the virulence of the virus. Top Keywords A32 gene, Contagious ecthyma, Goat pox virus, Orf virus, P32 gene, Phylogenetic analysis. Top |