Genomic characterization of lumpy skin disease virus in southern China

Lumpy skin disease virus (LSDV) is of high economic importance and has spread rapidly to many European and Asian countries in recent years. LSDV was introduced to China in 2019 and have caused severe outbreaks in several provinces. Here, we detected an LSDV strain (GD01/2020) from a cattle farm with typical LSD symptoms in Guangdong, southern China using a novel quantitative real-time PCR assay targeting the viral GPCR gene. We obtained the whole genomic sequence of GD01/2020 through metagenomic analysis. The GD01/2020 was highly homologous to the LSDVs isolated in Xinjiang, China in 2019, and distinct from all the LSDVs identified in other countries, in their sequences of GPCR and RPO30 genes. The GD01/2020 was a vaccine-recombinant strain, but distinct from two recombinant LSDVs identified in Russia. At least 25 putative recombination events between a vaccine strain and a field strain were identified in the genome of GD01/2020, which could affect the virulence and transmissibility of the virus. These results suggested that a virulent vaccine-recombinant LSDV from an unknown origin was introduced into Xinjiang, China in 2019 and spread to Guangdong, China in 2020.