Molecular characterization, phylogenetic analysis and viral load quantification of Lumpy Skin Disease Virus in Cattle

<title>Abstract</title> Lumpy skin disease is an emerging, remerging and trans-boundary disease caused by lumpy skin disease virus (LSDV) belongs Capripoxvirus genus and Poxviridae family in cattle. The recent episodes of disease outbreak in last 4 years from 2019 to 2023 caused huge socio-economic loss. In the present study, clinical samples from LSD outbreaks were collected from different districts of Karnataka, India for virus isolation and molecular characterization. Preliminary confirmation of LSD virus was performed by targeting envelope protein p32 (192 bp) gene by conventional Polymerase chain reaction (PCR). Real-Time qPCR was developed for absolute quantification of viral copy numbers in the infected samples. The viral copy number Log10 (Mean ± SD) in majority of the representative samples ranged from 4.962…