Secret Behind Lumpy Skin Disease Unveiled
By: Geetanjali
A multi-institutional team of Indian scientists have unveiled the secret behind the outbreak of the lumpy skin disease originating from the lumpy skin disease virus (LSDV). Which severely affected India’s dairy farming and agriculture sector in India.
The team of scientists consist of PhD scholars from IISC (Indian Institute of Science) in collaboration with major veterinary institutes of India. In their research which is published in BMC Genomics, they collected skin tissues, blood, and nasal swabs from the infected cattles in states: Maharashtra, Gujarat, Rajasthan, and Karnataka. They performed advanced whole genome sequencing of DNA, and found more than 1,800 genetic variations of the virus cell in the host cells. This is likely the reason why the virus spreaded so aggressively.
For more details, you can visit the direct link to the report published in BMC Genomics.
https://bmcgenomics.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12864-024-10061-3
The lumpy skin disease outbreak in 2022 has caused more than 1 lakh cattle deaths in India till date. Caused by a virus from the family of Poxviridae, also known as Neethling virus, is an infectious virus causing lumpy skin disease among cattles. Usually transmitted from one cattle to another through blood sucking insects like mosquitoes, bugs, and certain species of flies etc.
Originating from the sub-African regions, LSDV started to spread outside the region after 1989, later spreading to Russia, southeastern Europe, South Asia and Middle Eastern countries. More than 2 million cattles have lost their lives to this disease globally.
