Molecular characterization and phylogenetic analysis of lumpy skin disease virus from the field outbreaks in Ben Tre province of Vietnam in 2023

Lumpy skin disease (LSD) is an emerging transboundary viral disease and an economically important disease of domestic ruminants worldwide caused by the LSD virus (LSDV). LSD was first confirmed in Vietnam on 13 October 2020 and continuously spread to almost every province. This study highlighted the molecular characterization and phylogenetic analysis of LSDV occurring in Ben Tre province of Vietnam during 2023. Nasal swabs were collected in cattle from 70 outbreaks of LSD in seven districts of Ben Tre province to amplify the GPCR gene via the PCR method. The nucleotide and amino acid identities of LSDV between the field sequences in Ben Tre province and the reference sequences in GenBank were very high (98.4–99.6% and 99.7–100%, respectively), however, the nucleotide and amino acid identities between the field sequences and vaccine sequence were low (78.7–79.0% and 78.0–78.2%, respectively). Phylogenetic analysis according to the GPCR gene revealed that all the field sequences were clustered into the same group with the LSDV collected from cattle in other provinces in Vietnam and those in the neighboring countries including China and Thailand, and distinguished from the GTPV and SPPV recruited from the GenBank database. Moreover, multiple alignments of the field LSDV sequences in Ben Tre province and reference sequences from the previous studies in China, Thailand, and Vietnam showed a tight homology in the GPCR region. The present study expanded basic knowledge of the molecular characteristics of LSDV in Ben Tre province and Vietnam.