Abstract
Aim:The present study was carried out to find out the causative agent of exanthematous skin lesions in sheep maintained by Southern Regional Research Centre, Mannavanur, Kodai hills, Tamil Nadu.Materials and Methods:Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) with Orf virus (ORFV) B2L gene-specific primers was carried out by employing the total genomic DNA isolated from the scabs as the template. The ORFV isolates from Kodai hills were characterized by the use of bioinformatics tools.Results:The amino acid identity of ORFV isolate 1 from Kodai hills is having 98.14%, 96.29%, and 83.59% identity with reference strains of ORFV, Pseudocowpox virus, and bovine papular stomatitis virus, respectively. Phylogenetic analysis revealed that ORFV isolates from Kodai hills clustered with the other ORFV isolates from different geographical areas of India.Conclusion:The etiological agent of exanthematous skin lesion among sheep of Kodai hills is ORFV.
Highlights
Orf, popularly called as contagious ecthyma, is considered as an acute, contagious, debilitating, and economically important zoonotic viral skin disease in sheep and goats
Phylogenetic analysis revealed that Orf virus (ORFV) isolates from Kodai hills clustered with the other ORFV isolates from different geographical areas of India
The envelope protein (B2L) encoding gene of ORFV obtained from Kodai hills, India, was amplified from the genomic DNA isolated from the sheepskin scabs infected with contagious ecthyma by Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) using the primers designed using the sequence of the ORFVNZ2 strain (GenBank accession Number DQ184476)
Summary
Popularly called as contagious ecthyma, is considered as an acute, contagious, debilitating, and economically important zoonotic viral skin disease in sheep and goats. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http:// creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated
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